Clovis Unified board should reduce class sizes, not dilly-dally over masking mandate

As of right now, the Clovis Unified School District is breaking the law. “What? How?” you ask. While the district has not publicized this, a loud, small minority of parents at some schools in the district have decided to flout the state mandate that requires all students and school personnel to wear masks when indoors. At the elementary school that my children attend, this has been allowed to go on for the last week.

Parents are instructing their kids, some as young as 5, to go to school and refuse to wear their masks. The result is that resources are being taken from other children who are following the law to cater to these kids and their tantrum-throwing parents. One of them even had the nerve to accost a teacher for following the law and requiring students to wear masks.

It is not surprising that this is happening, since at the last meeting of the CUSD board, Trustee Stephen Fogg, noted ophthalmologist, stated, “We are not going to improve our student achievement until we unmask our kids and unmask our teachers.”

To Trustee Fogg, I ask: Will class size in Clovis elementary schools no longer be permitted to sit at 40-plus students when we unmask our kids?

Will CUSD teachers no longer be the lowest paid as compared to surrounding districts when we “unmask our teachers?”

Will the district stop hoarding the $150-plus million of taxpayer dollars in reserves and give our children the education they deserve when the masks are off?

No. The real, practical changes needed to improve the district for all students will continue to go ignored while the board wastes our time with self-serving nonsense. Even when class-size reduction was required due to a new state funding formula, CUSD worked with the Faculty Senate to instead opt to use a loophole in the law, which allowed them to enter into an agreement permitting higher class sizes.

No one enjoys mask wearing. Not the kids, not the teachers, not the administrators. However, CUSD is a public school district, and thereby must adhere to the law. The district cannot pick and choose which laws it follows, or it risks losing funding.

To be clear, I do not fault school administrators or teachers. As is the inevitable result, they are the ones left holding the bag when Trustees Fogg, (David) DeFrank and (Tiffany) Stoker-Madsen waste our time talking about how they want to use district funds (our taxpayer dollars) to support lobbying efforts to back their political beliefs. Spare us your political diatribes. If your goal is higher office, resign and seek it. It is, coincidentally, an election year.

Mask wearing will likely decrease more and more as has already been announced by Gov. Newsom. But, when the masks are gone, our problems will not have been solved, because we’re just been wasting our time on shiny objects.

I will give the tantrum-throwers this — their kids are getting some individualized attention. Wouldn’t it be great if we could give all students individualized attention more often, but in the classroom, not the cafeteria? Imagine if trustees and parents spent their time and energy advocating for the smaller class sizes that have been demonstrated, repeatedly, to lead to improved outcomes? That lead to higher test scores, greater participation in class, improved behavior? The smaller class sizes that would have permitted our kids to have been back at school sooner, even leaving room for social distancing? Now, that’s really something worth fighting for.