District 204 held a board meeting to discuss topics, such as new roofing for certain schools, a change in the elementary level social studies curriculum, new policies on suicide and depression prevention and awareness, and intra-district transfer and student assignment on Feb. 7. The board went into recess twice before deciding to end the meeting due to some parents who did not agree to wear masks in a public space.

“Wearing a mask in a public building is not something we have a choice on, this is still a governor’s order that is still in effect in public [buildings],” board member Mark Rising said. 

At the start of the public comment section of the meeting, the board members requested the public to wear masks, and if they did not have any, there were masks at the desk in the front. Many of the parents who had attended the meeting refused to wear masks and argued that the board could not make them wear masks. Due to this, the board called for two recesses in an attempt to give the parents a chance to wear masks, but had to end the meeting.

“I am going to kindly ask once again for you to put on your masks so that we can listen to your comments,” board member Laurie Donahue said.

Some parents did not agree with the governor’s order to wear masks in public buildings. They believed that the ongoing legal issue on mask mandates in school allows them to refuse to wear masks in a public area. The current state law regarding masks is that all individuals over the age of two who can medically tolerate it have to wear masks in closed public places.

To make up for the canceled meeting, the board of education held another meeting the following day on Zoom on Feb. 8.

“We did attempt to hold a meeting yesterday but were not able to hold our meeting, and we have business to conduct tonight,” Donahue said.