NEWBERG, Ore. — School districts in Oregon have permission from the state to make masks optional for all students and staff in K-12 schools after March 31.
Earlier this month, state health leaders determined the indoor mask requirement would be lifted no later than that date, citing declining COVID numbers along with hospitalizations projected to fall below pre-omicron levels.
But a handful of school districts are preparing to drop the policy ahead of March 31, defying the governor's executive order.
School boards in Molalla and Redmond voted to make masks optional starting next week. The Alsea School District voted to defy the mask orders in January and lost federal funding.
Newberg school leaders previously announced they would make masks optional starting April 1, but on Tuesday, board members considered what it would mean if they did this sooner.
At the last meeting, board chair Dave Brown asked Dr. Dave Novotney, the interim superintendent, to research the potential consequences that could be levied against a school district that chooses to end the state required mask mandate prior to March 31.
"This is a polarizing and emotionally charged issue. We're hearing this play out in school districts all across the state of Oregon," Novotney said.
Novotney listed several potential consequences that could arise should a district defy the mask order, including his own plan to resign should the board vote to go mask-optional before the end of March.
"I think you can respect the fact that as a volunteer person, working a lot of extra hours to support Newberg, I don't want my parting gift to be an investigation from Teacher Standards and Practices Commission," he said.
Ultimately, the board decided not to defy state rules and keep with the mask mandate.
"We have too many things to risk losing right now," Brown said.
Some of the fines for COVID violations are handled by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA). A spokesperson for OHSA told KGW, to date, the agency issued at least 16 citations involving failures by public and private K-12 schools to follow COVID safety protocols. Willful violation penalties can range between $9,000- $135,000 thousand.
Board decisions to defy the mask mandate can complicate things for the superintendent of a district. Enacting a policy that defies state rules could put their license at risk, but refusing to follow a school boards directive could put their job at risk.
New Oregon legislation would protect superintendents from no-cause termination and make it so a school board could not direct a superintendent to ignore or violate state or federal law. On Tuesday afternoon, Senate Bill 1521 moved out of the House Committee on Education to the House Floor with a 'do pass' recommendation.
A spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) told KGW that ODE and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) are actively working on "practical solutions including those related to quarantine and other mitigation protocols to maintain in-person learning as universal masking becomes a local option in our schools."
ODE will release updated guidance at the end of the month.