Hollidaysburg School Board Split on Masking Decision

What was set to make a very simple meeting became an extended one with a great deal of controversy which split the Hollidaysburg School Board.

The plea made by Michael Eardley during the public comment sector of the Wednesday, Dec. 8, Committee of the Whole/Voting Meeting set the stage. Eardley, who has a 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old daughter in the Hollidaysburg School District, urged the new board to pass a motion or motions eliminating masking, contact tracing and quarantining of students due to COVID. He said, “Sometimes calls to quarantine come a week late.”

The new Hollidaysburg School Board of Directors heeded his words. The meeting moved along smoothly until it hit a grinding halt just before adjournment during new business, when a discussion of masking came up.

Those in favor of eliminating mandatory masking immediately wanted to make a motion to do so. However, the school district solicitor informed them that this was not on the board’s printed agenda and had not posted for 24 hours before the meeting to give the public a chance to comment, violating the Sunshine Act. They would have to amend the agenda for the evening and then vote on the masking issue. The board voted 5-4 to amend the agenda for the meeting. With a new school board in place, board members Jennifer Costanza, Ken Snyder, Manny Nichols, Carmen Bilek and Nicole Hartman all voted for making the amendment while board members Ron Somer, Scott Brenneman, Lonna Frye and Doug Stevens all voted against amending the agenda. The vote on masking currently in the school was 5-4 in favor of making masking optional immediately with board members split the exact same way they had been on amending the agenda.

Those opposed to contact tracing and quarantining wanted to follow the exact same procedure to eliminate them; however, the school district solicitor from Beard Legal Group recommended to continue contact tracing and quarantining at this time for legal reasons, which Superintendent Dr. Robert Gildea and some other board members agreed with.

Following the solicitor’s and superintendent’s remarks, board members favoring elimination of masking, contact tracing, and quarantining of students over COVID led the board to hold an hour-long closed executive session over quarantining of students and contact tracing. When they returned, the announcement was made to table the motion of eliminating contact tracing and quarantining until the next board meeting to wait for the outcome of a final court decision on the expiration of a court order on the issue and the fact that the board wants to seek another legal opinion on this matter meaning any finalization of the issue would have to wait another month.