Nurse asks for mask rule as virus surges in Port schools

With Covid-19 racing through three of the five Port Washington-Saukville schools, the district’s nurse urged officials Monday to require all students and staff members to wear masks for 20 days.

“The new positive cases are coming in so rapidly and in greater numbers than we’ve ever seen before,” school nurse Abigail Monroe said.

The School Board’s Executive Committee, however, expressed no interest in such a requirement.

“Whether we like it or not, we have a lot of customers who don’t want it,” committee member Doug Miller said, presumably referring to parents who don’t want their children to have to wear masks in schools.

“We might be hitting the peak now. We don’t know,” he said. “I don’t feel like we have enough data to change our plan.”

Brian Stevens, the chairman of the committee and vice president of the board who earlier this month said he considers masks to be useless, agreed with Miller. 

The district’s pandemic response plan recommends but does not require students and staff members to wear masks until a school reaches a 3% infection rate.

Dunwiddie Elementary School became the first in the district to hit that mark last week, and students and staff members will have to wear masks for at least 20 days. 

Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Lincoln Elementary School are very close to reaching a 3% infection rate, Monroe said.

[UPDATE: At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Spet. 29, the district announced that the Covid-19 infection rates at both Lincoln Elementary School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School reached 3%, which means that all students and staff members  at these schools will have to wear masks for at least 20 days.]

Monroe on Monday gave the committee a blunt assessment of Covid-19 in schools, saying, “I’m afraid if we wait until we hit 3% this is going to be really difficult to control.

“My recommendation is we go to masks throughout the district so we can slow this down.”

Last year, schools experienced occasional handfuls of infection in students who likely contracted Covid-19 outside of school, but there was no sign the virus was spreading within schools. 

This year, it’s clear students are spreading the virus to their classmates, Monroe said.

“If there’s a positive student in school on Friday, by Monday there are three more positive cases in that classroom,” she said. 

Dunwiddie Elementary School Principal Joanna Bannon said, “Whenever we have one positive case, we have others, and it happens just like that.”

Monroe said her phone is ringing off the hook with calls from parents reporting sick children.

“I had 49 voice messages right off the bat this morning and there were 10 new cases at TJ (middle school),” she said. “They (reports of Covid-19 cases) are coming in fast.”

Bannon said 55 students were out of school Monday because they have Covid-19, are symptomatic or chose to quarantine.

“We’ve never had so many kids out of school,” she said. 

Port Washington High School Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Nate Hinze said 65 students were out of school Monday.

“It seems like every time the door to the office opens we have more kids going home,” he said.

It’s not just students who are getting sick. Twelve teachers have Covid-19, and of those only one was not vaccinated, officials said. 

“We’re certainly seeing positive cases in people who have been vaccinated,” Monroe said.

But most of the students and teachers who contract Covid-19 recover and return to school after the mandatory 10-day quarantine, she said. 

Brenda Fritsch, a member of the Executive Committee and president of the School Board, said the fact students aren’t becoming seriously ill is a good reason to continue with the current response plan rather than implement a blanket mask mandate.

“Seeing kids coming back to school is the most important thing to me,” she said. “I think we should stick with our current policy and see how things play out.”

Stevens asked if enough was being done in schools to properly filter and exchange air. 

“I have questions about things I’m inclined to think are more effective than masks,” he said. 

Director of Business Services Mel Nettesheim said the district is using advanced filters and exchanging air in schools as frequently as possible. She noted Dunwiddie Elementary School, which reached the 3% infection threshold, has the most modern air-handling system in the district.

“Kids sit so close to each other in classrooms that I don’t know if that (air filtration and exchange) is the saving grace,” Fritsch said. “I just don’t know that it helps a lot.”

This is the second time elected school officials have rejected a recommendation to implement a district-wide mask requirement. Earlier this month, the School Board ignored such a recommendation from administrators who comprise the district’s Covid-19 Response Team, although it did lower the infection rate threshold at which masks are required in a particular school from 5% to 3%.