Libby school officials could keep district mask mandate in place

While state and local officials may rescind their mask mandates in a matter of weeks, Libby Public School administrators plan to maintain their face covering policy until the threat of the coronavirus abates.

Libby Public School Board members began discussing their policy following a Jan. 5 announcement from Gov. Greg Gianforte. The newly sworn-in governor said he would wait to rescind the statewide mask mandate until more vulnerable Montanans received the coronavirus vaccine and legislators passed a bill that would protect schools, places of worship, businesses and nonprofits from coronavirus litigation.

Gianforte expected to accomplish these objectives within weeks.

Kathi Hooper, county health department director, has said that Public Health Officer Dr. Brad Black intends to rescind his local order when the statewide directive expired. Both the state and local mandates require face coverings to be worn in indoor public spaces and outdoor events where social distancing is not possible or ignored.

Reflecting on Gianforte’s position, Superintendent Ron Goodman said during a Jan. 11 school board meeting that the governor’s prerequisite conditions for repealing the mask mandate remain vague. To date, Gianforte has not provided a figure for how many Montanans would have to be vaccinated before he would change the state’s policy. Nor has Gianforte provided specifics on the liability legislation he expects to receive from state lawmakers.

Goodman said it might prove beneficial for the school district to maintain their face covering policy regardless of Gianforte’s stance on masks. Were Libby schools to change their mask requirement while case counts remained high locally, the virus could spread rapidly through the district. If quarantine policies were still in place, Goodman worried that a bump in case counts could lead to a suspension of in-person learning.

“We get three or four or five kids to test positive, we're out of business,” he said. “We won’t have anybody back in the building.”

A small amount of positive cases can lead health officials to ask a high number of students and staff to quarantine. Educators have suspended in-person learning at Libby Middle High School and Libby Elementary School twice before — once in October and once in November — after health officials feared the virus was spreading within school buildings. The closures were prompted in part by concerns that the district would have too many teachers in quarantine to keep classrooms open.

As part of his public health policy updates, Gianforte has altered the vaccination schedule created by former Gov. Steve Bullock. The changes pushes frontline workers, including teachers, further down the list to prioritize Montanans most vulnerable to the virus. School board members were concerned that not all of the district’s staff would be vaccinated by the time Gianforte lifted the mask directive.

Employees over the age of 70 or have preexisting conditions, however, are fast-tracked under the updated vaccination plan.

When discussing the efficacy of masks as a measure to mitigate the spread of the virus, Goodman pointed to data the district had gathered over the course of last semester. Since schools opened in the fall, the district has seen 45 positive cases. Health officials have asked a total of 450 students and staff to quarantine but have only found eight cases of the virus that were transmitted within schools.

Goodman noted that the 45 cases health officials confirmed within the district made up only seven percent of the total number of known cases in the Libby area. The number of students and staff in the school district, by contrast, represents a sizable chunk of the county population.

“I don’t think there’s any other more dense population mass in Lincoln County … and we’ve only had eight transfers,” Goodman said.

The figures convinced Goodman that the masks worn on Libby campuses have been effective at stopping the spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite studies that have found that cloth masks block between 50 to 70 percent of respiratory droplets that carry the coronavirus. Studies have also shown that cloth masks also are effective at protecting wearers from the virus.

Goodman noted that the decision to retain mask requirements after state and local governments have repealed their mandates could generate backlash from parents. In this case, Goodman said the school administrators would have to show empathy and maintain good conversation with those who opposed the decision.

“We don’t want to be in masks any longer than anybody else,” he said. “But we also want to have these kids in school as long as we can.”

“If the mask mandate doesn’t coincide with what’s good for us, there are going to be some hard feelings,” Goodman said.

The decision on when to lift the district’s mask requirement is left up to school administrators. Goodman said he would consult the health department and health care professionals before changing the policy.

Goodman’s hope for ending the mask code is to find a Goldilocks scenario; one that neither exposes students and staff to unnecessary risk nor keeps them wearing face coverings longer than needed. Exactly how or when Libby Schools will arrive at this point remains unclear.

“When you Google how to exit the pandemic there’s nothing there,” Goodman said.