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Mostly Cloudy Board shuts down meeting over masks
It all started with a simple instruction: Wear a mask. But when parents attending the Feb. 9 East Meadow Board of Education meeting refused, the board adjourned into executive session, essentially closing the public out.
The meeting, at the Salisbury Center, kicked off at 7 p.m., with Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Card reminding parents that the venue required masks. “You will need to wear your mask for the duration of the meeting,” Card said. “If you do not wear your mask, we will ask you to leave, or we will adjourn the meeting and move into executive session.”
The meeting coincided with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision that day to end the indoor mask mandates in the state everywhere except schools. While the governor promised she would revisit the masking question on campuses in the near future, some parents at the board meeting didn’t want to wait.
Board president Alisa Baroukh tried to keep the meeting moving in the beginning, covering some agenda items leading up to the first commentary period, designed to give those in the audience a chance to speak on various issues, including some highlighted by the parents, ranging from school budget expenses to spacing issues at McVey Elementary School.
After public comment ended, Baroukh reminded those attending the meeting in person that they needed to keep their masks on. “This is not our rule, this is not our law,” she said, “but we cannot continue to do our business if you are sitting in the audience unmasked. We can adjourn the meeting because we cannot do our business this way, and that would mean that this important presentation about the future of McVey can’t happen.”
When some in the audience still didn’t comply, Baroukh ad-journed the meeting for 15 minutes to “regroup.” Afterward, with some audience members still maskless, Bar-oukh made good on her threat, moving the board into executive session.
One parent, Janet Goldstein, says she empathizes with the feelings surrounding the mask mandate, but believes that shouldn’t overshadow other issues, like what’s happening at McVey.
“I understand that they’re looking out for the best interest of their children, as we all are, regardless of whether we have children in the system at the moment or not,” Goldstein said. “But to prevent the positive progression of issues that are affecting all of their children, as well as my school community, is going against what their main goal or objective is, which is to better the environment for all students.”
Maria Vassel Perez, who has a child at Meadowbrook Elementary School, blamed the board for the resistance to masks, claiming the members were not listening to and taking the parents seriously. “Why is it wrong for parents to want the choice for their children to wear their masks or not?” Perez asked. “We were adults sitting six feet apart in an administration meeting. It’s not a functioning school building.”
But Baroukh told the Herald that’s not the case. The Salisbury Center is a district building and falls under the umbrella of “school buildings.” Because of that, the state mask mandate remains in force.
While Perez acknowedged that simply putting on masks would make this a non-issue, she said some of her fellow parents compared what they were doing, keeping their masks off, to civil rights icon Rosa Parks sitting at the front of the bus. “The times that we’re living in right now, of course, it’s so much easier to go along with the majority,” Perez said. “But there comes a time that if you just keep doing it, you’re losing everything.”
But still, the intention wasn’t to cause a disruption, she added. They just want people to take them seriously. “The parents are really trying to make their voices heard any way that they can at this point,” Perez said. “Unfortunately, it might’ve hurt other parents that night, but that was not the intent.”
The board seems to spend more time shutting people down than listening to them, Perez said. Witnessing the move to executive session wasn’t too much of a surprise.
Baroukh said she understood their frustrations. “But we have to abide by a state mandate,” she said. “We can’t expect the children to be masked all day in our building but not enforce the same for us or anybody that attends the board meetings.”
Goldstein said she believed the board had no other option except to adjourn. “I truly believe that they are there to do their business of bettering our school community,” she said. “And they don’t have to make it public, but they do. And that is a privilege that is afforded to our community.”
The board was expected to host a meeting online this week to address some of the items missed at the Feb. 9 meeting. Continuing the business of the board, Baroukh added, is essential.
“We were going to discuss very important non-Covid related items,” she said. “These discussions were vital to the students of the district, and the taxpayers of the district.”
