PARMA, Ohio -- Similar to many other school districts in Northeast Ohio, Parma City Schools is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 numbers, with 233 students in quarantine and 41 positive tests as of early this week.
“We’re pulling a lot of students out of classrooms, and masks would have prevented that,” Superintendent Charles Smialek said.
“So clearly these folks who aren’t wearing masks feel passionate about that, because they’re willing to essentially roll the dice on a quarantine, which is a huge inconvenience.”
Despite the increase, Smialek is standing firm on the district’s policy of strongly recommending -- rather than mandating -- that students and staff wear masks.
“We currently have 2.5 percent of the student population in quarantine,” Smialek said. “I’m not making light of it, but that’s such a small percentage. That’s not going to dramatically alter our plan of action right now.”
The superintendent did acknowledge that Labor Day weekend wasn’t great in regard to students and staff reporting exposure and/or positive COVID tests. While there are currently two staff members quarantining with 11 positive tests, Smialek expects that number to increase.
Despite remaining steadfast in his decision, a mask-wearing mandate isn’t completely off the table.
“I feel like we’re going to probably use this week as sort of a necessary data set collection for us to make a determination,” Smialek said. “At the high school level, obviously students have had the ability to be vaccinated, so they can avoid being quarantined if they’re wearing masks.
“We’re still seeing a relatively low percentage of high school students wearing masks. While quarantining is onerous and no one wants the inconvenience, there are definitely ways to avoid that.”
At the elementary school level where mask wearing is more prevalent, Smialek said the district is seeing fewer quarantines.
“It would probably be the elementary level where we would look at potentially a mandate given the fact that you have students without any option to be vaccinated, but the numbers look different,” Smialek said. “There are a lot of different variables we’re trying to weigh.”
Smialek noted that the Parma City Schools community continues to have ardent supporters on both sides of the mask-wearing issue.
“It’s a very passionate and heated issue,” Smialek said. “I’ve told folks it seems more passionate than even to open or close school last year. There’s more anger on both sides in the mask debate.
“We’re getting a fair amount of people saying we need you to mandate masks. But we’re also getting a fair amount of people saying we shouldn’t be warning their kids about wearing masks and if we institute a mandate, they’re going to pull them and put them somewhere else.”
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