By Joel Langton,
The 830 Times
It took the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District trustees 80 minutes to decide masks were mandatory for employees, not mandatory but encouraged for students and employees could get 10 extra days of medical leave if they tested positive for COVID in a specially called meeting Tuesday night.
The bulk of the meeting was taken up with about a 30-minute public comment session, where parents were given 2-minute blocks of time to share their perspective. Ten took them up on it and views were on both ends of the pro- and anti-mask spectrum.
Previously, Dr. Carlos Rios, SFDRCISD superintendent issued a mask mandate for students when riding in district vehicles.
Presently, about 104 of the district’s 9,800 students have tested positive for COVID since the beginning of this school year and there are a dozen staff cases.
“A lot smaller than we had before,” Rios said, referring to the number of COVID cases. “Probably due to a large part of the staff being vaccinated.”
The trustees voted a mask mandate for employees 4 to 2. Raymond Meza made the motion, Diana Gonzales seconded. Voting for the motion were Amy Haynes, Linda Guanajuato-Webb, Gonzales and Meza while Josh Overfelt and Ken Smith opposed.
After a short discussion, the board tackled the most contentious part of the evening, mask wear for students. This died in a 3 to 3 tie, Smith, Webb and Overfelt opposed while Haynes, Meza and Gonzales were in favor.
Smith had said earlier that the district’s present course of encouraging students to wear masks caused little division and stayed in line with Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s mandate against no mask mandates.
The trustees found something they could agree on when the subject of extra sick leave for staff who tested positive for COVID passed with six “yes” votes.
The trustees mentioned several times during the meeting they’re ready to discuss the issue again if cases continue to rise.
The meeting can be watched in its entirety at: (1) SFDR-CISD Board Meeting (August 24, 2021 6PM) – YouTube .
You can contact the writer at joelalangton@gmail.com.
