As of Nov. 1, West Fargo Public Schools (WFPS) has 12,208 students and a 0.75% Active Positive Student COVID Case Rate. Fargo Public Schools (FPS) has 11,105 students and a 0.9% Active Positive Student COVID Case Rate. Yet, the two schools have drastically different policies. FPS is masking children, but WFPS is not. FPS’s website prominently states the number of students they have isolated, while WFPS does not have a goal of isolating children.
Parents at the Oct. 26 FPS Board meeting asked how the mask policy was addressing the 20% drop in student test scores. School board members did not respond. Cassie Schmidt, local mother and Founder of Let Parents Decide That, an organization formed for those concerned about parents’ rights in North Dakota, noted during a phone interview last week that “the more than 1,900 parents of Let Parents Decide That and their children in FPS are upset by the difference in policy that has no beneficial effect on COVID case numbers nor addresses concerns about student achievement.”
"I cannot call board members and try to sway them, that would be a violation of public meeting laws. The only place for this discussion is here. That's our job, to talk about it now, in open session."Jennifer Benson, Board member, Fargo Public Schools
FPS Board member Jennifer Benson moved to end the mask rules at the Oct. 26 Board meeting. Benson spoke as both a board member and a parent. “Our kids are suffering. We are not doing right by our children.” In response, board member Seth Holden demanded Benson “come to us as individual board members to try to sway us.” Benson called upon School Board President Rebecca Knutson to clarify that Holden’s demand was a violation of law. “I cannot call board members and try to sway them, that would be a violation of public meeting laws. The only place for this discussion is here. That’s our job, to talk about it now, in open session.” President Nelson however, did not open the topic for discussion. Instead the motion was put to a vote where it fell 2 to 7. David Paulson was the only other board member to vote for Benson’s motion to make masking a parent choice. Holden, Nelson, Knutson, Jim Johnson, Tracie Newman, Nikkie Gullickson, and Brian Nelson voted to continue the policy of, as a parent who spoke at the meeting stated, “making medical decisions for children.”
Jake Schmitz, one father of children in FPS, called their policy infuriating for its lack of sense. “It’s bananas. If we’re wearing masks to limit the spread of COVID-19, then we’re already there. Cases are down. In fact, cases in WFPS are lower, so if we want the cases to decrease even more, we should do what they are doing.”
"It's bananas. If we're wearing masks to limit the spread of COVID-19, then we're already there. Cases are down. In fact, cases in WFPS are lower, so if we want the cases to decrease even more, we should do what they are doing."Jake Schmitz, Fargo
FPS decided in August to list “universal and correct wearing of masks” and “contact tracing in combination with isolation” as top priorities in their application for more federal funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER). FPS also uses a Federal Department of Transportation rule for international ports to enforce masking of children on school buses.
Vice President Robin Nelson, one of only two school board members who answered calls for this article, explained that the school board’s COVID policies are a result of two factors: 1) the contract with Fargo/Cass Public Health for medical advice, and 2) the September 2020 the close-contact, no-quarantine order that the Governor rescinded after just two days. That FPS currently has a $42 million funding surplus from ESSER grants is something that parents are well aware of, according to Schmitz. “There’s no goal we can meet to end the masking,” said Schmitz.
FPS’s website states they will continue current ESSER practices “for the safe return to in-person instruction” through at least September 2024. While Vice President Nelson suggests that parents continue speaking with the school, FPS Superintendent Gandhi, who responded by phone on Oct. 26, confirmed that the mask and mitigation policies are not going to be reviewed. “These were decided by the school board. Unless the school board changes this decision or Fargo/Cass Public Health changes their advice, the mask regulations for students will not change.”
"These [policies] were decided by the school board. Unless the school board changes this decision or Fargo/Cass Public Health changes their advice, the mask regulations for students will not change." Dr. Rupak Gandhi, Superintendent, Fargo Public Schools
WFPS is not masking children. Unlike FPS, West Fargo’s most recent ESSER grant of $15 million dollars did not rely on masking children. You can wear a mask in the West Fargo School system, but unlike one FPS family with an unmasked child this fall, in West Fargo you won’t be threatened with arrest. As a result, some students who live on the boundary would like to switch. However, according to Heather Leas, Director of Health, Safety, & Public Relations with WFPS, the state open enrollment deadline for school district changes is in February of the previous year, meaning students would not be able to switch until the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
Let Parents Decide That is working to get local data instead of CDC guidelines to fuel local decision making. “There’s no study, even with the CDC, proving that masks stop the spread of Coronavirus in schools. While West Fargo and Fargo schools are separate, we all live in the same community, shop at the same stores and visit the same restaurants. Our children play together. It’s why when school board member, Fargo/Cass health board member and Sanford employee Tracie Newman demanded children remain masked during outdoor recess at the school board meeting and then took her child out to play unmasked on a team the next day, everyone noticed.” Newman was unable to be reached by phone in order to respond.
FPS families are carefully observing pro-mask school board members, such as Johnson, when they are out in the community unmasked. Johnson responded by phone on Oct. 25, stating that he always wore a mask if a business requested it and that he didn’t know what people were saying, but “just because people were talking, didn’t mean that they were talking accurately.” Johnson went on to say that he was “under the impression WFPS policy does not include contract tracing and only relies on parents to report illnesses, sometimes weeks after the fact.” However, Leas confirmed that WFPS contracts with North Dakota Department of Health for identifying positive cases and has a contract tracing policy for positive cases.
