The actual agenda items of the Pleasant Valley School Board meeting weren’t what parents wanted to talk about Thursday night.

They wanted information about the mask wearing requirement and the quarantine protocols for students who might come in contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19.

Acting Superintendent Charlene Brennan said, “We have charts for the quarantine. We had a couple of changes that we needed to make. As soon as those are made tomorrow, we will get those up on our website for all parents.”

In the eight days that school has been in session, more than 200 students have had to quarantine due to exposure to someone with COVID-19, Brennan said. The district has been working to make sure they have what they need to do their school work from home, including getting Chromebooks to those that need them.

According to the state Department of Health, the rate of positive infections for the week of Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 in Monroe County was 12.5%. Out of the state’s 67 counties, Carbon County was the 15th highest for positive infections at 13.8%. Lehigh County was 11.4%. Schuylkill County was 10.9%, and Northampton County was 10.6%. Nearby Wayne County came in second highest in the state at 21.9%.

School Director Laura Jecker broached the subject of mask wearing in school. She asked why the district’s mask wearing exemption form requires a doctor’s signature when the order set by the state did not mention it. She also wanted to know where the form came from and who presented it to the district.

School district solicitor Mark Fitzgerald said he gave the form to the district and it is similar to the one that was being used by most school districts last year.

Fitzgerald said the Pennsylvania Department of Education issued a list of answers to “frequently asked questions” on Sept. 3 following the state order for masks to be worn in school. The purpose was to give school districts more direction.

“(PDE) indicated that the only scenarios in which exemption should be granted is in the scenario where a student qualifies under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s an even higher standard, in my opinion, than a doctor’s note.”

Fitzgerald said that in that scenario, a 504 plan team would have to collaborate, meet and discuss whether or not a mask exemption would fall under either of those two laws. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is federal legislation that was drafted to guarantee rights to people with disabilities. A 504 plan is different from an individualized education plan in that it is less detailed.

“The doctor’s note seems to be the most efficient way to gain an exemption based on PDE’s guidance,” he said. “The 504 process is more cumbersome.”

School Director Norman Burger asked him if investigating a student’s need for a 504 plan would be an expense to the school district. Fitzgerald said not necessarily. The district’s guidance counselors could contact the parents to get their approval to allow the counselor to contact the student’s doctor to investigate if a disability existed to warrant an exemption from wearing a mask.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, parent Faith Lawrence of Chestnuthill Township said that she is concerned that if the counselors are busy processing mask exemptions requests, then they won’t have time to work with the students who have a disability and already have a 504 plan.

“There are actual kids who need a 504 plan either for a medical reason or for a learning reason,” she said. “I don’t think that they should take up the time of the school district and the doctors to be able to get their kid to not have to wear a mask.”

Another parent, Alice Wheelis of Ross Township, said she doesn’t like masks, but she is going to have her children wear them because having the kids in school is more important to her than school being closed due to COVID-19 infections.

Gretchen Schaffer of Chestnuthill Township thanked the school board for upholding the state order.

“The mask mandate will help keep our children in school in the safest way possible in this pandemic,” she said.

Schaffer noted that states that did not have a mask mandate in schools have seen high infection rates and have had to close in-person instruction because of it.

According to news reports, there have been 15 deaths of staff members in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District from COVID-19 from Aug. 23 when classes resumed to Sept. 2. In Texas, two teachers died in one week from COVID-19 in McLennan County after school opened in August. Three teachers have died in Georgia since mid-August. In Tennessee, eight public school employees have died from COVID-19 since school reopened.

There were also parents who do not think the students should be wearing masks. Some felt the efficiency of cloth masks isn’t worth wearing them and others think it is detrimental to their child’s health.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Wearing a face mask does not weaken your immune system or increase your chances of getting sick if exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Wearing a mask, even if you do not have symptoms of COVID-19, helps prevent the virus from spreading.”