ROCHELLE — At Tuesday’s Rochelle Elementary School District Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Jason Harper said he was currently unable to offer a recommendation on COVID-19 mandates due to the ongoing legal process regarding them.

All Rochelle schools are currently temporarily under a mask recommended policy for students and staff and ceased student/staff exclusions for quarantine as “close contacts” and staff vaccination/testing requirements. All of those measures were previously mandated by executive orders of Gov. JB Pritzker.

On Feb. 4, a judge in Sangamon County issued temporary restraining orders related to the Governor’s COVID-19 executive orders and emergency rules issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) regarding COVID-19 mitigation strategies for students and staff in school.

Harper said in a Feb. 6 letter to parents that the districts’ legal representatives interpret the judge’s current ruling to invalidate the governor’s executive orders and IDPH’s and ISBE’s rules, rendering the mandates unenforceable against every school district in the state.

A possible stay to preserve the COVID-19 mandates had not come as of Wednesday, but the state did start an appeals process of the judge’s ruling.

“I've said at previous meetings that my recommendation to the board is that we adhere to state mandates,” Harper said. “We've been advised that they have the force of law behind them. That was my recommendation, to do that until those executive orders were terminated, modified or overruled in the courts. That is essentially what's happened.” 

Harper said that until he knows what the legal outcome will be at the state level, he can’t offer a recommendation. He did say that mask recommended is his preference, if possible. Before the governor mandated masks just before the start of the school year, Rochelle schools planned a mask optional approach.

“Right now based on the hypothetical, I think I can comment that when we've had the support of legal counsel which is what I come to you all making recommendations on, I would recommend if we're able to do so, to go to a mask recommended approach,” Harper said. “That's where we were at the start of the school year before the mandate, and that's where we find ourselves today.”

Harper said he did not know when a potential legal stay could be placed on the governor’s mandates or when a potential appellate decision would be made.

Multiple parents thanked the board for making masks optional after the restraining order during the meeting. Some expressed dismay that the school district required masks during the school year as a whole and didn't defy the governor's mask mandate.

"If something happens and the governor winds up trying to reinstate this, I would hope this school board, seeing the damage that has been done, would go along with the other districts that are suing the state," parent Alan Stultz said. "I don't know why this school board didn't get on board with the lawsuit and stand up for the rights of the parents and the students."

Some parents asked for answers about what course the school district would take if a court decision reinstated the governor's mask mandate.

"If there is an appeal and a reversal, I ask that you guys still decide to do the right thing and keep a mask optional policy here, which is what you should have done to begin with," parent Cole Thomas said.

During the rest of his COVID-19 related update, Harper said that cases are down in the district right now after a mid-January high and that a testing site is still being offered for symptomatic students and staff and the district has enough tests for the month and is trying to secure more.

Board President Dave Casey was absent from the meeting and Board Member Steve Builta filled in for him and led the meeting.

IT services

The board unanimously approved moving forward with a shared district technology services approach between the elementary and high school district. The elementary district has an outsourced agreement for IT services and the director used from that service recently resigned.

Employment

The board unanimously approved the resignation of Whitney Brandt (second grade teacher, Central School, end of 2021-2022), the retirements of Susana Guzman-Holland (end of 2022-2023), Sheri Klindera (end of 2023-2024), Theresa Crystal (end of 2024-2025) and Krista Barco-Kida (end of 2024-2025) and the employment of Alyssa Hansen (first grade teacher, Lincoln School, FY2023), Abeer Aljabari (paraprofessional, Lincoln School) and Ben Harvey (paraprofessional, Central School).

Accessibility 

During the public comment portion of the meeting, a parent brought up the issue of handicap accessibility at Central School with the district’s new attendance centers model.

“Back in December, my wife and I went to the Central School Christmas program,” James Bingham said. “She called ahead and said she would be in her wheelchair and was told they'd get the ramp out for her. It was a piece of plywood that lays on the stairs. Now that we have attendance centers, I'm wondering if there are plans to make Central School handicap accessible for students if they eventually go there."