Public school board trustees will debate bringing back masks — again

Trustees with the Thames Valley District School Board in southwestern Ontario will vote again tonight about whether to make masks mandatory in classrooms, but first they'll debate whether they even have the authority to make that decision. 

A week ago, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted to mandate masks in its schools. That same night, London-area trustees decided that they didn't have the authority to do that, but some votes may have been improperly counted, so they'll have another debate tonight. 

"I'm personally frustrated with the decision of the government to remove masks this early and we're seeing the results of that," said trustee Corrine Rahman, who wants Thames Valley to mandate masks again. 

"We need to do everything in our power as a society to keep schools open. My constituents want to make sure schools are open, functioning and operational, and that's why this discussion is important." 

The province lifted mandatory masking in classrooms in mid-March. Since then, Thames Valley schools have had trouble functioning, with 10 per cent — or about 1,000 — staffers out with COVID-19 or in quarantine. Two schools had to move to remote learning because there weren't enough teachers, and other schools have reported 20 per cent absences. 

"The level of disruption to the children and the learning is difficult," said trustee Bruce Smith at last week's board meeting. "I've had a lot of comments from the citizenry on this and not one has been anti-mask. Every one has said, 'Please, reintroduce the masks.'" 

But school board politicians don't have the authority to bring back masks to schools, argued Elgin County trustee Meagan Ruddock, who led a successful bid to quash the vote at last week's meeting. 

"Our role is one of governance, so why are we wading into an operational matter?" Ruddock said at the time. 

A subsequent vote seemed to indicate a majority of trustees agreed with Ruddock and the matter was dropped at last week's special board meeting. But some votes may have been miscounted, so trustees are meeting again Tuesday night to redo the vote. 

If Ruddock's objection is quashed, they'll then vote on whether to bring back masking in schools.