by Mike Knaak
Masks will no longer be required for after-school events and activities at Sartell schools. For sports and other events, masks are now “strongly recommended” for adults and students.
Masks will continue to be required during the school day, but at the Dec. 20 Sartell-St. Stephen school board meeting, board members debated the purpose for the continued mask mandate during the school day.
Superintendent Jeff Ridlehoover said the administration relaxed the after-school rules for three reasons: all students can be vaccinated if they choose to; the difficulty enforcing masking after hours and after-school events are voluntary while school attendance is required.
Board members Amanda Byrd and Tricia Meling challenged the change only for after-school events and asked why masks are still required during the school day.
Board chair Jeremy Snoberger said the district’s Covid committee supports continued masking. Kids, he said are required to be in school while activities are a choice.
Meling said that when she was a student, after-school activities such as sports were “not a choice, it was my life. My life was my sports.”
Board members Patrick Marushin and Matt Moehrle focused on hospitalizations and the board’s desire to keep kids in school. When the board voted in August, the decision was that masking was a key mitigation factor for keeping kids in school. Moehrle worried about keeping staff healthy so that schools can remain open if the mask requirement was dropped now.
“In the middle of an outbreak, not a time to reduce preventive measures,” Moehrle said.
“It’s too early to take a mitigation method away,” Marushin said.
Byrd argued “why do schools have to be the ones trying to keep hospital rates low when nobody else is masking? Why are we carrying the burden? We need to move this discussion to parents taking responsibility for their own kids. Our role isn’t to save the world and keep people out of the hospital.”
The board and administration will re-evaluate the mask situation in January.
According to the district’s Covid dashboard, there were 77 student cases as of Dec. 16. That was up from 66 student cases the previous week. Staff cases decreased from eight to three.
Tax levy approved
The board voted final approval for the 2022 tax levy. The board approved the $60 million budget, which includes a 16 percent fund balance, up from 15 percent this year. The district’s policy calls for at least a 10 percent general fund balance. Salaries and expenses account for about 80 percent of district expenses. On the revenue side, state aid contributes 83 percent and local taxes account for 10.5 percent of revenue.
The property tax impact depends on a home’s value and if the value increased in the past year. On a $250,000 home with no value increase, the school district’s share of property tax will decrease 3.72 percent from taxes paid in 2021. If a home valued at $250,000 in 2021 increases to $267,500 this year, a 7 percent increase, school taxes will increase by 3.65 percent in 2022.
