MONROE — For the second straight time, the Monroe Board of Education met to talk about COVID-19 protocols, only for national, state and local officials to alter recommendations before the next meeting.

On July 26, the board met and agreed upon procedures for the upcoming school year, which included optional masking by students and staff. On Aug. 5, as the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant began to grip the nation into a third wave of the pandemic, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and Green County Public Health all updated their recommendations for communities, states, businesses and schools.

“Two weeks seems like almost 7 years in COVID days,” board president Rich Deprez joked. “Since we last met we’ve had a CDC guidance change; we’ve had DHS release their guidance; we’ve had two releases from Green County Public Health; the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) also released their guidance. The consideration for breakthrough infections now being contagious has also been disclosed; close contacts have been redefined, with those being masked not being defined as close contact.”

In the opening graph of the CDC’s update, which can be read in full at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html, it states, “Given new evidence on the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, CDC has updated the guidance for fully vaccinated people. CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place.”

At the Aug. 9 Monroe BOE meeting, much of the discussion by both the public and the board focused again on COVID-19 protocols, including when to require masks be worn by students and staff. And yet again the following day, another recommendation change, as Green County moved from Moderate burden to Substantial. 

“In a perfect world, the CDC and DHS would have the same scale, but they don’t, which is one thing that I think leads to confusion,” Monroe District Administrator Rick Waski said. “One thing we have to talk about is what scale we need to use if we’re going to be using any decisions that are based on data.”

According to the 4-level scale the DHS uses, all Wisconsin counties are either in High or Very High — the two strongest levels of case count. The state recorded about 1,800 new positive cases of COVID-19 on Aug. 10, it’s most since 2,032 people were diagnosed on January 21 — more than 6 ½ months ago. 

“Looking at the burden levels as defined by DHS, and what we thing about masking being optional versus required under different circumstances. I looked at last year’s numbers when things got challenging for us — and we have to realize that we were masked last year. Whether that’s going to change the trajectory of this, I don’t know. Common sense would suggest that the transmission might go up if people aren’t wearing masks,” Waski said. 

Last year the district had transmission issues when the county was above High on the six-point scale — which actually started as a four-category scale and was later adjusted to six. 

“They literally added cases above high as cases went up — they kept adding to the scale,” Waski said. “The one wild card (last year), and I think it has to be said, is that was masked. What will that look like unmasked?”

The board and Waski were in agreement to follow local case numbers when making decisions — while also monitoring state and national trends. Each level of governance has its own scaling system in place to show risk. 

There was also concern — and agreement — on fears for elementary school students. Children are susceptible to the virus. Over 94,000 children were diagnosed with COVID during the week of Aug. 1-7, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Vaccines are only available to those 12 years of age and older, which is generally students in sixth or seventh grade. Those who have gotten the vaccine can still get — and spread — the virus. The vaccine is not a protective forcefield, instead trains the body to fight the virus, thus minimizing the effects. 

As of Aug. 2, the CDC reported that out of 164 million fully vaccinated Americans, there were 7,525 breakthrough COVID-19 cases around the country that resulted in either hospitalization or death (about 0.0045%). Breakthrough cases are of those vaccinated that still test positive with symptoms. Of the 1,507 breakthrough deaths, about 74% were adults over 65. 

Pfizer has said that it would submit its vaccine to the FDA for emergency approval for children in September, but at that point it is in the FDA’s hands. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently available to anyone over the age of 12. 

Another vaccine maker, Moderna, has said it is expected to submit its application to be used for children in mid-fall. Federal and industry officials told ABC News that the likely timeline for vaccines for children ages 5-11 would be around December 2021 or early 2022. It is also likely that approval for infants and toddlers would come shortly after. Shots for children under 12 is expected to be a smaller dose, about 10 micrograms compared to the 30 micrograms currently available for adults. 

Waski said the mask debate rarely sees people move their support from one side to another. 

In terms of the district’s burden level, Waski said “I think that people would say ‘just don’t get there; if everybody wears a mask we aren’t going to get there.’ And my response to that is that I’m not sure. We got there last year, and we were all wearing masks, and in fact sometimes we got there and we were in half-capacity,” Waski said. “I don’t think it’s fair to say that we won’t get there. I think it’s fair to say that logic would indicate that if more people are wearing masks, those cases might be lower. I would never disagree with that.”

During the open public comment period, five local residents spoke to the board about masks. Four were in support of not just option, but requiring masks, as the current wave is only expected to grow in the coming weeks.

“I can’t believe this is still in question,” said Demarie Baker of Monroe during public comment, pleading to scrap the optional mask decision from July and instead to implement universal masking to begin the school year. “There is no science to support the other side, only internet conspiracies. 

“Everybody wants to get all the kids back in school. I want my kids back in school. … Case numbers are climbing in the counties all around us. Hoping for the best is not a plan. The best chance we have to keeping students in school is universal masking. We owe it to the kids to give them their best chance — right now, masking is their best chance.”

Baker’s 11-year-old son is currently at band camp, though he is masking up each day.

“I tell him everyday to be strong, be brave, and stand up for what he knows is right and wear his mask no matter what anybody says or does, because we understand the science. He understands the science,” Baker said. “That’s a lot to put on a kid. I’m asking my child to do what the administrators that are supposed to look out for him are not brave enough to do.”

Kyle Baker said that those families in favor of masking have less options than those against masking.

“You’ve all acknowledged the possibility that for the duration of the pandemic, families opposed to masking will have an in-person available by going to nearby communities. That was one of the major concerns that was discussed last (meeting),” Kyle Baker said. “There’s no such option for those of us to support masking. Our only options are to send our children into a biological hot zone or have them learn remotely. There’s no safe in-person learning environment for those of us asking for masking. This provides unequal choice for Monroe School District parents like me.”

Only one of the five public commenters, Isaiah Carlson, questioned masks at all.

“Back during the height of the pandemic, we were masking and doing a lot of social distancing; we had stay-at-home orders. A lot of schools in Wisconsin didn’t even have their children at in-person school — and you still had those high numbers,” Carlson said. “I just wonder, to be reasonable and rational, is this spike enough to warrant going back mask mandates that we had previously?”

Waski told the board he called every nearby district earlier in the day before the BOE meeting to see how others are handling the mask vs. no mask debate. 

“Every district in Green County is currently mask-optional, in Rock County, Beloit and Stoughton — there’s a tiny piece of Stoughton in Rock County — are requiring masks,” Waski said. All of the other districts have masks optional but four districts: Beloit Turner, Oregon, Whitewater and a public charter school in Beloit called The Lincoln Academy have yet to decide on the issue.

After each board member gave their thoughts on whether or not to mandate masks for K-5 — or even all school levels, as well as a possible building-by-building approach — should the district reach a Very High level, Waski said he would write an amendment to be discussed and possibly voting on at the next meeting, slated for Aug. 23, just a little over a week before the fall school session opens.

This year, the school district is only offering JEDI as an alternative for in-person learning at the school, instead of last year’s Plan H option, where students could learn at home with the rest of their normal class and a Monroe school teacher. Those entering or exiting JEDI can only do so at the end of each semester. The deadline to sign up for JEDI was Aug. 13.

“There’s a lot of people that want us to recreate last year. We can’t do that. Our staff can’t maintain that. We talked about it in the spring, having one section per grade level and have a district-virtual, but you need a lot of numbers to even sustain that. You’d need 10-15 kids minimum, per grade level. Once you get into high school, it’s kind of by class, and then it’s even more complicated,” Waski said. 

Teachers would be horrified, Waski said, because they don’t want to replay the past 16 months of how they taught. “They rose to the challenge, but it’s not sustainable. So that leaves us JEDI,” Waski said. “But make no mistake about it, it is not the same program we had last year.”

Should local COVID-19 case rights rise to extraordinarily high numbers, putting the area in a Critically High level, Waski said he felt comfortable with some classes potentially switching to a temporary online-only learning model for several days as needed. He’s comfortable because his staff has been there before — of the 200 teachers in the district this year, just 12 are new. The district also will still use Google Classroom or Schoology to connect teachers to students who may be home in the event of necessary quarantining. 

“The majority of our teachers will know how to spool this up, for lack of a better term. … [It] could happen, and when that happens I think we are prepared for it,” Waski said. “In a short period of time that’s defined by conditions, I think we’re OK with that. It’s just not a permanent education solution for the year.”

Deprez stated during the discussion on masks was that a big difference between the start of last school year and this one is simply having an available vaccine for anyone 12 and older, and that the county has an adoption rate of the vaccine at just over 50%.

“The subtext for this is please get vaccinated, period. We’re three weeks likely from a Delta peak in the Wisconsin area. There’s still time. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell your enemies. Please. Please, please, please get vaccinated. It’s the best way we can keep our schools open, keep our kids in school, protect everybody who is near and dear to us is for them to get vaccinated,” Deprez said.