MONTVALE—Some half-dozen residents concerned about the district’s mask and Covid quarantine policies raised issues at the Pascack Valley Regional High School District’s Sept. 13 board meeting.
While the residents raised issues about Covid quarantine rules and whether the mask mandate for students in schools made sense, board president Tammy Molinelli said that trustees and the administration must follow state health and Covid-19 guidance, the governor’s orders, and state mandates.
Molinelli told residents the board “needs to draw the line somewhere” and that means “defaulting” to what the State of New Jersey and its health department recommend to the district.
River Vale resident Eli Moellen dinged the board for “actively promoting a vaccine” to children that he asserted were “at a very low risk” for contracting Covid-19.
[Contracting the virus and risking illness and death is one aspect of the public health problem; transmitting it to others, particularly the vulnerable, is another. Masks help one protect those nearby. — ed.]
Moellen asserted that the state’s indoor mask mandate for schools “exposes children to health risks and taxpayers to liability risks.” He questioned whether requiring masks for Covid-19 would make the district liable during a flu outbreak because they are not requiring similar protective devices for the flu.
Trustee James Stankus said while he’s for a vaccine mandate for high school students, the district as an institution “defers to the state” and follows health guidelines and state orders. “I don’t think we’re pushing any agenda as far as a mask mandate or a vaccine mandate. This is coming down to us and we’re following it.”
Stankus said that the spreading of Covid-19 virus “puts a strain on our communities and our hospitals, and noted that should coronavirus spread, local hospitals can become overwhelmed.
Shilomeda Cuperstein suggested that the school board does not necessarily need to follow a state mandate for masking indoors and that it should join other boards opposing the mandate.
However, interim superintendent Daniel Fishbein said that the one district, Middletown in Monmouth County, which opposed the mandate was ordered to follow the state rules.
Fishbein told Cuperstein that should an unvaccinated student be exposed to an Covid-19 infected person, that person needs to quarantine while a vaccinated student does not need to quarantine, under current state guidelines.
Cuperstein questioned that guidance, noting that she understood current science finding that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals can spread the coronavirus.
Fishbein said if an individual has had a confirmed case of coronavirus in the past three months, and is exposed to Covid-19, that individual does not have to quarantine.
Trustee Gini Varghese said what trustees have to do “is protect the greater good of the school district. She noted while she “appreciated” alternate viewpoints, “as a board we have to do what is right for the greater district.”
Resident Ben Freedman attacked the efficacy of masks, referring to what he said was a study from Georgia. “You, me, our children: we’re being lied to.”
He urged the board to discontinue adherence to the state mask mandate and suggested trustees write to the governor saying the district would not participate in government mandates on masks or vaccines.
Former Woodcliff Lake trustee David Steinberg said he was “very upset” with public comments made at the prior meeting that compared elements of the discussion touching on the district to Nazi Germany.
He said some people may need an education in Jewish history and questioned why only one person — a student — took exception to the comparisons.
Asked what would happen if a teacher made similar statements in class, Fishbein said the remarks would be “inaccurate” and that the teacher would be reprimanded.
Steinberg suggested those upset with the state’s mask or vaccine policies go to Trenton and protest, or start a petition. He said he was “disgusted” with people comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust. And he said it was “appalling” that no one pushed back against the comments, and said he hoped the next superintendent to be hired would.
Weaver acknowledged mixed public sentiment and a conversation that’s gone on some 18 months and would continue, and finally said the board is not a political organization but rather one “responsible for policy and implementing mandates that come down with the state.”
He suggested residents need to take their passion “and direct it toward Trenton on both sides of the aisle.”
Weaver said, “Not one member of this audience has stepped to the mic to thank our teachers or our administrators for all that they’ve done to get our students back into the building. Let’s focus our energies there. Please, could we please as a community focus on the positive because that, at the end of the day, is what our children need most.”
The next regular board meeting is on Monday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pascack Hills High School auditorium. The public is welcome to attend in person or else view the meeting live on the district’s YouTube channel.