Official questions the mask mandate

A Logan school board member, irked by the boys basketball team’s failure to qualify for the state tournament partly due to COVID-19-related game cancellations, advocated the school flouting the state’s mask mandate and vented against other state restrictions during the board’s meeting last week.

Board member Kyle Perez indicated during his comments at the May 10 meeting the pandemic was being prolonged by state-mandated safeguards at schools.

“The longer they keep us restricted like we are and keep us masked up, this disease isn’t going away,” Perez said. “If they take the masks off, let it go through out school system, we’d be back to normal.”

Logan superintendent Dennis Roch did not respond specifically about Perez advocating the district ending the mask requirement but said he sympathized with Perez.

“I definitely share some of the sentiment but, unfortunately, we have to comply with the state’s rules as a condition of operating as a school,” Roch said.

Roch said he has told parents not to bring symptomatic students to school, and the usual recommendations to take those children to the local health clinic “actually has triggered case counts in Logan.”

Perez also falsely asserted the Texas Panhandle has seen “zero” cases of COVID-19 since the state lifted its mask mandate in early March.

According to Texas Department of State Health Services data, confirmed cases of the virus were reported among students or staff at the Canyon, Amarillo and Perryton school districts in the Panhandle from April 26 to May 2, the latest data available. Texas also has reported an average of more than 1,600 cases in students and an average of more than 500 cases among staff members in its school districts each week since late March.

Perez said Logan students have “regressed” academically under education mandates, and he advocated filing more lawsuits against the state.

“I’m concerned about going forward in the next year if the state department keeps doubling down on their retarded philosophies,” he said. “At some point in time, we’re going to have to start standing together as a group of well-educated, sensible people and say, ‘You guys are wrong, and this is destroying our kids’ academic careers.’”

Other Logan school board members and Roch have voiced dissatisfaction with state COVID-19 mandates for schools in previous meetings.

Roch appeared during the meeting by videoconference. He confirmed in an email to the Quay County Sun he was under quarantine after being exposed to a COVID-19-positive person. Perez also participated in the meeting by teleconference.

The Logan ZIP code has recorded more than 30 cases of COVID-19 since mid-April, according to New Mexico Department of Health data.

A few days after the meeting, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state of New Mexico issued new guidelines that people vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer have to wear mask in most situations. However, masks remain required in New Mexico schools because many children are not eligible for the vaccine and probably won’t be until later this summer.

Earlier in the meeting, Perez said he was “really ticked” the Logan boys basketball team failed to qualify for last month’s eight-team Class 1A tournament, in part because COVID-19 cancellations kept the Longhorns from playing critical district games.

He said this year’s tournament format, which would have allowed only one at-large team, “set up our boys for failure.” The at-large option turned out to be eliminated when two teams at another district tied for first place, and both qualified.

“We had an extremely good boys basketball team that should have been represented in the state tournament,” Perez said. “In my opinion, our boys got majorly screwed.”

Athletic Director Billy Burns said despite Logan defeating Fort Sumner earlier in the season, Fort Sumner received a tourney bid because it had a higher district winning percentage (6-3) than Logan’s (3-2).

Burns also pointed out an early season loss to Clovis Christian and a season-ending loss to district champion Melrose also damaged Logan’s postseason prospects.

Burns said he reached out to other district foes to see whether they would play another game hours before the night of state tournament seedings, to no avail.

Burns said the decision on the 2021 tournament’s setup was made by the full board of the New Mexico Activities Association last summer.

He said Fort Sumner’s volleyball team also felt the sting of not getting an at-large bid for the state tournament.

Burns said he would provide email addresses to the NMAA so Perez could send his complaints.

Roch mentioned during his superintendent’s report the district was in danger of on being placed on the state’s watch list because of coronavirus cases. Four cases in two weeks would cause the district “to lose all privileges and flexibility” for 14 days and jeopardize graduation and sports events, he said.

In other business:

• Roch went over the proposed 2021-2022 budget, which totals $4.7 million. About $3 million of that is salaries, benefits, textbooks, travel and supplies, he said.

• In more routine matters, the board approved Title 1 and Title 2 applications for $40,000 and $6,400 in federal funds for the next school year, mostly for programs or costs associated with poverty-stricken students. It approved a Fine Arts Education Act application for $24,000 for children’s programming, including an annual Christmas production. It approved four transportation contracts totaling $166,176.

• Board members held a first reading of several proposed policy revisions. Roch said the district has to “be careful” in melding current Logan Municipal Schools rules on hairstyles and dress codes with the new state policies so the district still can maintain some local control.

• During the academic update, Roch said the district was beginning MAPS academic progress testing that week. He said previous testing during the winter showed Logan students did not regress as badly during remote learning as other New Mexico school districts.

Roch also said most seniors are “ready to go” academically to graduate. The ceremony will be held 9 a.m. May 29 at the football field, with an 11 a.m. ceremony that day in the performing arts center for students who took online courses all year.