Greeley’s University Schools reverses course on masks on advice from attorney, insurance company
By Kelly Ragan
In the wake of Windsor Re-4 requiring students to wear masks, University Schools will require its own students to wear masks unless they meet one of three requirements.
Getting to that point took a little scrambling.
University Schools’ board of governors voted to approve a policy that specified masks, serial testing, and vaccines would be required only if the school hit a positivity rate of 3%. That policy lasted for a day.
In a new 6-4 vote at a board meeting Sept. 10, University Schools’ board of governors voted to reverse course and require masks on the advice on their attorney. After a robust debate, the board voted to require masks unless they meet one of three requirements:
Students get vaccinated
Students opt into serial testing
Allow students who have tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered to go maskless and skip testing for 90 days
Much of the pressure comes from the school’s insurance company.
“Our insurance has been very clear they will not engage with us if we don’t (have approved mitigation strategies in place),” said Jennifer Weaver, the director of schools.
Some board members, including Ryan Mayeda, questioned why mitigation measures such as scrubbing and sanitizing desks wouldn’t meet the requirements.
“If we make sure kids are washing their hands, making sure they don’t have comorbidities by not eating 5 pounds of sugar a day — which we don’t talk about because we’re too sensitive — if we just come across as saying, ‘No, none of this is good,’ the fatigue factor is going to set in,” Mayeda said. “We risk losing a lot of money. We risk losing students to other schools.”
University may not be the shining star or gold standard compared to District 6, he said, but the school would be in line with private and charter schools in the area — falling somewhere in the middle of schools doing less and doing more.
For context, District 6 has required masks for all students in preschool through eighth grade since August 30. This covers students who are not yet eligible for a vaccine.
Unless a death happens, the backlash around masks could be more than the board wants to handle, Mayeda said.
“If we have a death on our hands, that will be a big deal,” he said. “There hasn’t been a death between 0-19 years old yet.”
Weld County has had at least one death in the 0-19 age group. The county website shows an asterisk for that category, which means the number is between 1-2 deaths. The county, following state standards, suppresses numbers lower than three to avoid potentially identifying information.
Weaver said it’s because the CDC has determined that sanitation measures, put in place last year at the start of the pandemic, are ineffective. Recognized mitigation strategies, she said, include masking, serial testing, and vaccines.
“From a liability perspective, choosing things that aren’t part of mitigation won’t help us,” Weaver said.
On Sept. 8, Windsor Re-4 unanimously approved a mask requirement for all students and staff in the district, including high school students and vaccinated students and staff.
The decision came shortly after Superintendent Dan Seegmiller reached out to the Weld County Department of Health and Environment.
How the health department fits in
The health department — spearheaded by the politically conservative Board of Weld County Commissioners — has consistently favored personal choice rather than issuing mandates.
While the Larimer County health department has issued a mask mandate, Weld hasn’t.
According to a report by the Greeley Tribune, the health department wouldn’t approve or disapprove of Windsor’s plans to manage COVID-19, but it also did not specifically approve the 3% threshold the district proposed -- something the insurance company took notice of.
That’s the same threshold University adopted for a day as well.
Some University board members expressed frustration at other’s reluctance to embrace approved health strategies for combating the virus.
“We are not experts. We need to trust CDC and CDPHE,” said Amanda Haas, the board’s faculty representative. “We worked so hard to get into this building, I would hate this to be what brings the school down.”
Board member Stephanie Welle asked why University couldn’t follow what Frontier was doing.
Frontier is working with a 2% positivity rate trigger. Until it hits 2% positivity, it does not require masks. It hit this threshold and began requiring masking for all students, staff and visitors at Frontier Academy Secondary Sept. 14 and will continue to require masks for 28 calendar days, which ends Oct. 11.
If the positivity rate falls below 2%, the secondary campus will no longer require masks.
While this sounds a lot like what University’s board proposed, there’s one big difference.
Weaver said Frontier is quarantining kids, something University is not doing.
“If I had to pick a line, I would have a hard time supporting a choice that puts hundreds of kids in quarantine,” Weaver said. “If there is anything universal, people want their kids in schools.”
Haas, Fitzsimons, Justin Martinez, Bill McAdams, Jeff Weber, and Ethan Miles voted yes.
Mayeda, Welle, Jake Daggett, and Tina Whitcomb voted no.
Following the vote, University sent out an email to parents notifying them of the mitigation options. It also asked parents to select which mitigation option they would follow.
About testing
At the board meeting Sept. 10, Weaver said University would receive about 700 tests from the state — but as of last week, a testing system had not yet been established or coordinated at the school.
“If you do not complete the form by Wednesday (Sept. 15) your child will need to wear a mask indoors at University until you have completed the form,” according to a director update on University’s website. “If your family chooses serial testing, we will be in touch to arrange a schedule for weekly testing. We are working in partnership with CDPHE to offer serial testing at University. Until that is operational for everyone, we will be scheduling grade levels each week, prioritizing elementary schools.”
On Sept. 17, another director update appeared to publicly include positive cases for the first time, citing 44 active cases and 24 active exposures impacting 44 high school classrooms, 35 middle school classrooms, 11 elementary school classrooms and two adult groups.
At that time, University still did not have a testing system in place.
The message again stated, “if you choose serial testing we are working on a schedule to accommodate everyone and will be in touch with next steps, including consent forms.”
The NoCo Optimist reached out to Weaver Sept. 24 to see if any progress on a testing system had been made, but had not heard back at the time of publication.
While Greeley-Evans School District 6 does report quarantine updates, University isn't included.
In an interview with the NoCo Optimist, Weaver said this was because University does not contract with the district for health services.
According to CDPHE, University has an active outbreak — reported Sept. 17 — involving six staff members and 45 students.
That report came after a Sept. 8 University board meeting in which the board stated the school system had 40 confirmed cases involving seven staff members.
The Sept. 17 report appears to be the first time data about outbreaks involving University Schools appears on the state’s website.
The NoCo Optimist reached out to the Weld health department for insight on how the department typically works with schools during a possible or suspected outbreak.
“CDC and CDPHE guidance states that schools are required to report cases of COVID-19,” according to the health department. “When schools reach out to us, the epidemiology team works with them on interpreting school quarantine guidance, providing mitigation options, and determining if there is or is not an outbreak.”
The health department declined to answer how involved it was with University, stating it “does not discuss ongoing investigations,” in an email Sept. 15.
The health department also stated that in Weld, school districts have taken on responsibility for their own contact tracing. While the health department is “available to assist schools with determining quarantine and mitigation recommendations,” it is not involved in the contact tracing process.
Zoom out
According to a report by the Colorado Sun, state health officials have data showing that requiring kids to wear masks in schools is associated with lower rates of COVID-19.
As it stands, Weld County has the highest number of 7-Day cases per 100,000 among school-aged children between 6 and 17 years of age, followed by El Paso and Larimer counties. Denver and Boulder counties show the lowest rates of COVID-19.
According to the Sun, the variability generally lines up with vaccination rates. Weld is about 57.9% fully vaccinated for its 12+ population.
But masks also have an impact.
The Sun’s analysis shows case numbers shifted as school started (to be expected) — districts not requiring masks saw faster growth in cases and hit a higher peak than the districts that did require masks.
At this point, more than 75% of kids across the state now attend school districts with a mask mandate in place.
By the numbers
According to the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, as of Friday:
110 Weld residents between 0-19 years of age had been hospitalized by COVID-19
7,991 Weld residents between 0-19 years of age had tested positive for COVID-19
More than zero but less than three Weld residents between 0-19 years of age has died due to COVID-19