School Board Debates Whether To Defy Governor Parent Choice Order

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL ? Four hours into an emergency meeting of the Hillsborough County School Board, members have yet to reach a decision on whether to defy the Florida governor's order and tighten the school district's mask requirements for public schools.

After listening to more than an hour of emotionally charged testimony on the pros and cons of masking students from a stream of mostly parents, school board member Nadia Combs made a motion to tighten the mask rules for the next 30 days by requiring those parents who want their students to opt out to obtain a written exception from a physician.

The school district is currently mandating that students wear masks to school but is giving parents the chance to opt their student out of the mask requirement without a medical reason. To date, 28,000 Hillsborough County students have opted out.

That policy is in keeping with Gov. Ron DeSantis' executive order requiring that school districts give parents a choice.

However, on Tuesday the Florida Board of Education concluded that the policies adopted by the Broward and Alachua county school boards requiring a medical excuse to opt out of a mandatory mask requirement violates the governor's order.

DeSantis has stated that school districts that defy his order risk losing school funding, and he's threatened to remove school board members from office and withhold the salaries of the superintendent and board members withheld.

Both Broward and Alachua county school districts maintain that they are still giving parents an option and, therefore, are abiding by the spirit of DeSantis' order.

"That's the legal argument we could make if you choose to pass this motion," said Hillsborough school district attorney Jim Porter. "Our position is we're not defying the order. We're complying with the order but with a more restrictive opt out."

As for the threat of losing funding, Porter said the school district received a letter Wednesday morning from U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, vowing to provide federal funding if the governor withholds money from the school district.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona sent a letter on Friday with a similar promise to support Florida school districts that choose to mandate masks.

The emergency meeting was prompted by the overwhelming number of students and staff who are under coronavirus quarantine or isolation after either testing positive for the coronavirus or being directly exposed to a person with the virus.

As of Wednesday, 1,421 students and 537 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus. In all, 10,722 students and staff have been placed under quarantine or in isolation in the first seven days of the 2021-22 school year.

"I have no interest today in breaking the law. We have received an executive mandate from the governor. As constitutional officers of the state of Florida, we took an oath," school board member Melissa Snively said. " If we go against this order, we will be breaking the law."

School board member Jessica Vaughn, however, questioned whether the governor is upholding the law by withholding necessary funding from schools that don't follow his order.

"I think this order needs an opinion from the courts because I don't know that we are breaking the law," she said.

Gray said she's always been a law-abiding citizen but said she finds it unconscionable that the governor can make a ruling with the Department of Education that has "tied our hands by not giving us the money to do our jobs."

School board member Karen Perez said she's especially concerned that, if the state withholds funds, it's going to unfairly impact the 68 percent of Hillsborough County's students who are minorities and are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus.

"The audacity of lawmakers not to comply with the disbursement of federal funds and to hold these funds in a bucket to use at whatever discretion they please is hurting our most vulnerable children," Perez said.

"These funds are needed," she said. "But instead of draining the pool, they've thrown alligators into the water."

In the face of the rising number of coronavirus cases and the fact that the delta variant spreads more easily to children than the original alpha variant did, school board chairwoman Lynn Gray said the board needs to take a stand to protect children above all else.

"Are we going to say, 'Hey, man, let's do something in our power to mitigate this, reduce quarantines and up the ante for students' successful learning?" she asked. "Isn't a 30-day measure the least we can do, even if it saves just one life?"

Superintendent Addison Davis said Hillsborough County isn't alone. The Miami-Dade County School District has also decided to require medical permissions to opt out of the mandatory mask rule.

"And you can see that other districts are going to be following suit," Gray said.

"Just because Miami-Dade jumped off a cliff doesn't mean we have to jump off a cliff with them," said Snively. "What's going to happen is we're going to feel the repercussions from the Department of Education."