SCS to keep mask mandate, weigh closures amid threats from Tennessee house speaker

Meghan Mangrum Laura Testino
Memphis Commercial Appeal

Shelby County Schools will keep its mask mandate in place when students return to class this fall. And the return of some remote learning isn't off the table if the virus warrants a closure, district leaders said Monday morning at a press conference.

In a separate news conference about test scores in the afternoon, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said Monday he would ask Gov. Bill Lee for a special legislative session if school districts mandate masks or close amid the ongoing spread of the coronavirus.

In a response to the comments, the district reiterated its COVID-19 protocols and guidelines and attached a link to it's return to school plan, citing "the best interest of safety and local decisions."

Sexton, R-Crossville, also threatened to introduce legislation that could open the door to another voucher push if schools do close again this year, citing the negative impact remote learning had on student achievement last school year.

Student performance:Tennessee student performance plunged during the pandemic; under 30% of students on grade level in key areas

Sexton joined Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn at the news conference, and said it would be "unacceptable" for schools to close again in Tennessee.

"I sure hope that any school system in this state after this data has been released does not shut their schools," Sexton said. "If they do, I'm going to ask the governor for legislation to allow those parents in those school districts to take their children and take their money and with school choice go wherever they need to go."

SCS said returning remote is not off the table, though the district is opening in-person next Monday. Although school doors opened again last March to the third of students who wanted to return, Monday will be the first time since March 12, 2020 that students are required to be in classrooms (unless they are enrolled in the district's virtual school). 

In public meetings and interviews, SCS Superintendent Joris Ray has repeatedly said students are returning in person on Aug. 9, and it does not appear that the district will shutter schools before the reopening date, with several back-to-school in-person events already held and scheduled for the coming days. Throughout the last academic year, the district stressed "flexibility" in its reopening approach, and seems to continue to embrace a flexibility to interpreting science and data about the current pandemic.

"We don’t control the virus," district spokesperson Jerica Phillips told reporters Monday morning. "I don’t want to rule out that we would ever need to (go remote), and we don’t know how the variant or other variants may impact our families and our students."

Masks required:Citing the rise of COVID-19 cases, the delta variant, SCS will continue masks for all this fall

If the guidance is for SCS to go remote, the district is willing to, she said, pointing to examples of city or county "stay at home" orders. 

Sexton also threatened to call a special session if school districts mandated mask wearing for students, which until now most officials have said was a local decision.

During a visit to Memphis last week, Schwinn suggested last week that mask requirements should be a local decision, but Lee emphasized the importance of "parents' choice" during the news conference. 

SCS issued its mask mandate the day after the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidance that all people older than 2-years-old should mask in school buildings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since similarly updated its guidance.

Sexton's remarks were targeted at the school districts that didn't immediately reopen or mostly remained virtual last school year, specifically Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools. 

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Both districts came under fire from the Lee administration last school year with district leaders Ray in Memphis and Adrienne Battle in Nashville pushing back and emphasizing the importance of student safety in their local decisions on when to reopen for in-person class.

Metro Nashville Public Schools officials pushed back against Sexton's comments Monday, noting that school districts were required to plan for in-person, remote and hybrid instruction for the 2020-21 school year. 

"The State of Tennessee authorized and required local school districts to plan for in-person, remote, or hybrid instruction last year through the (continuous learning plans) process," spokesperson Sean Braisted said. "That authorization is not available to school districts for 2021-22 and our plans are to remain in-person for the remainder of the year."

Braisted also said the Metro Nashville school board will meet Thursday to discuss mask requirements — a meeting announced just prior to Monday's news conference.

"The guidance from the Tennessee Department of Health to superintendents last week was that this was a local decision and encouraged them to refer to the guidelines from the CDC. It would be helpful for districts to know if that guidance has changed," Braisted said.

Sexton said he has "been hearing that school systems plan to segregate students based on who's vaccinated and unvaccinated," but there is no evidence that any Tennessee school district has proposed the idea.

Preliminary student testing data released by the Tennessee Department of Education Monday showed remote students did experience larger declines in student performance overall last school year, but the department has not released district-level data yet. 

"It will be interesting to dig down into the districts that we closed the whole year and see how negative they impacted their students," Sexton said Monday. 

State testing:More than 93% of Shelby County Schools students participated in TNReady tests, exceeding district's goal

Overall, 2021 TNReady testing data showed that student performance plunged for all Tennessee students last school year with only 29% of students now on grade-level in English language arts, and even less — 25%  — on grade-level in math.

Despite most educators and state officials predicting a decline in student achievement, Sexton said Monday he had heard from some people who didn't believe students would experience learning loss.

"There were some who would come to meet with us and said there wasn't going to be any learning loss because they thought that a virtual education would work. I think the data today showed that that does not work," he said. "That you have huge loss."

Sexton's comments are a diversion from his previous stance on school voucher programs — which typically allow families to use state funding to pay for their child to attend a private or non-public school. 

After receiving the House Republican Caucus nomination for speaker in July 2019, Sexton said he was concerned about implementation of Lee's controversial education savings account program.

He previously explained to The Oak Ridger why he originally voted against Lee's proposal.

“I just have philosophical differences and have a different view of public education,” he said in 2019. “It was very beneficial for me to be a part of the Oak Ridge School system.”

The governor's education savings account program, which passed the House by one vote in 2019, is currently tied up in court. A judge in Nashville ruled the program unconstitutional because it applied only to Shelby and Davidson counties. The case is currently pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The state currently has a limited education savings program for families of students with disabilities. But up until 2019, efforts to pass a broader school voucher program had failed.

Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino