At their meeting Monday evening, the Alliance School Board voted to require masks for students testing with school psychologist available from the Educational Service Unit after learning the ESU would not provide psychology services in Alliance if masks were not required.
Superintendent Dr. Troy Unzicker said that the former school psychologist left the district because there was no mandate for masks.
“The ESU now has, basically, the same masking requirements,” said Unzicker. “We’ve had several requests on requiring masks, and we’ve always said no. I know nurses at times want to require masks as they’re working with people. The hard part for me is Dr. Hutt left because of no masks.”
Board Member Tim Richey said he fears losing the service if the board does not require students to wear masks while working with the psychologist. Unzicker confirmed Richey’s fear.
“I think that’s a service we need to provide,” said Richey.
Board Member Josh Freiberger asked about the typical caseload for the psychology services. Special Education Director Liz Baker said that the district is in need of the services to comply with federal law.
“I believe we have at least 10 that we need to have tested before the end of the semester, somewhere between 10 and 15,” said Baker. “We are out of compliance on a few students because of lack of school psychologists. ESU is working hard with us and we’re getting caught up after having a meeting and looking at dates more closely. It’s a problem. It’s federal law, so we need to continue to work to meet the federal law.”
Richey asked whether the ESU is requesting masks for just students in testing. Baker said since most meetings are conducted through Zoom, the masks would only be required while testing.
The board voted unanimously to require masks for students during testing. In other action, the board voted to follow the guidelines set by the Nebraska School Activities Association, including requiring masks for spectators at events.
Unzicker said Alliance Middle School saw their first game last week, and noted that the district was referred to Panhandle Public Health District for not following guidelines during the game. Unzicker said he believed the referral was a mistake and that he planned to discuss the issue with PPHD.
“That gym’s occupancy is huge,” Unzicker said. “We only have bleachers on one side, so I can see how somebody said we didn’t follow the requirement. We did. We were under the 25 percent.”
Unzicker said that although he did not attend the game, he followed up with others in attendance about spectators masking. He noted that he was aware of only one parent who refused to wear a mask after being approached. Unzicker said the guidelines are all subject to change as COVID-19 cases continue to increase throughout the state.
The board discussed the measure before voting unanimously to follow the guidelines set by the NSAA, including the requirement for spectators to wear masks. Board members also voted unanimously to approve the Western Conference Guidelines, including limiting spectators to four people per participant.
Cases in Box Butte County continue to rise, with the county on track to surpass 500 cases since testing began in March. As of press time, in Box Butte County there have been 494 cases, with 111 active, 381 recovered and two that resulted in death.
At Alliance Public Schools, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard, there were six active cases: three at Alliance High School, one at Alliance Middle School and two at Grandview Elementary. There were a total of 72 recovered cases and 78 people in quarantine in the district. At Hemingford Public Schools, there were no active cases, six recovered cases and 12 people in quarantine in the district.
Throughout the Panhandle, as of press time, there were 2,172 active cases, 2,448 recovered and 24 cases that resulted in death, bringing the total number of cases in the region to 4,644 since March. There were 84 people hospitalized throughout the Panhandle due to COVID-19 as of press time.