Redmond School Board asks Brown, OHA about mask mandate review, return to local control

'We need hope, a light at the end of the tunnel'

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Redmond School Board is sending a letter to Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority, asking for details about the state’s promised monthly review of its school mask mandate and when local decision-making on such issues will return.

The board noted that a promise in June to return to local decision-making models, with advisory state guidance, changed a month later to require masks in K-12 schools statewide, among other mandates, as the Delta variant-fueled surge in COVID cases hit.

“For going on two years now, our schools have been disrupted by this virus,” the board said in the letter they voted to send at a previous meeting and reviewed Wednesday night.

“We understand the dangers, and we respect that districts must take precautions to keep our students and staff safe,” they wrote. “However, here in Redmond as in other parts of the state, there is a great deal of COVID fatigue.

“We need hope, a light at the end of the tunnel – and more than that, we need some guidance from the state leaders who have put these restrictions in place,” the board letter states. “We need clear information about when we can expect local decision-making to return – what type of metrics our county needs to meet, for example, in order to see masks left up to our capable school leaders.”

Here's the full letter: