Gibraltar Moving to Mask-optional Policy

An aerial view of the Gibraltar School campus. Photo by Brett Kosmider.

Superintendent Van Meer announces her retirement

Older students at the Gibraltar School District will have the option to unmask starting next week, with the same option available to younger students after the holiday break.

The new pandemic protocol came Monday evening, Dec. 13, with the school board’s 6-1 vote. The mask-optional policy will be implemented for students with parental permission starting Dec. 20 in grades seven through 12, and the faculty and staff who work with them. The optional masking starts Jan. 3 for students with parental permission in kindergarten through sixth grade, and the faculty and staff who work with them.

Implementation of other pandemic safety protocols will continue, such as cleaning, personal handwashing, appropriate social distancing and federally mandated masking for all persons on school buses.

The decision came after several board members expressed their opinions that the district had done everything it could to keep students safe since the start of the pandemic 18 months ago. With vaccinations now available for even the younger children aged five to 11, the school board had fulfilled its responsibility.

“We have done everything we can to make them safe,” said school board member Lauren Ward. “The responsibility should shift to the families.”

Widespread unmasking outside the schools was another reason to shift the policy, said school board member Mike Peot.

“I think it’s time to relax our protocol and recognize what’s happening as a standard practice in our community,’ he said.

School board president Stephen Seyfer first suggested the mask-optional policy start Dec. 20 for all students. That changed when school board member Erik Schrier suggested the later date for the younger children to give more of them time to become fully vaccinated. Door County Medical Center began giving the first dose of the vaccine to children aged five through 11 on Nov. 2.

School board member Amie Carriere said they needed to get back to teaching and learning.

“We took the right approach for a long time,” she said. “We need to balance the importance of learning with our mitigation strategies.”

The only dissenting vote was cast by school board member Angela Sherman. She said a clear reason had not been given for ignoring public health officials who advise optional masking when disease levels are low and vaccination levels high, conditions that have not yet been met within the local community.

About 80 people attended the meeting, five who addressed the board. Four of those asked for optional masking, the fifth asked the board to keep masking protocols in place.

Superintendent Van Meer Announces Resignation

In other business, the school board accepted the resignation of Superintendent Tina Van Meer, who said she was resigning for the purpose of retirement.

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve,” she said.

Van Meer worked as the elementary principal at the Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy in Monroe, Wisconsin before being hired by the Gibraltar School District in 2012. She took over for then-superintendent Seyfer, who retired in June 2012 after 15 years in the district.