{span}The Redmond School Board during a special meeting Aug. 11, 2021 to discuss the Gov. Kate Brown’s mask mandate.{/span}

The Redmond School District adopted a resolution Wednesday that takes pandemic mitigation from the district’s control and hands it to the discretion of parents and guardians, a move that could place the district at risk of fines from state agencies and legal retribution.

The resolution directs the district to create plans making masks optional for students in Redmond School District buildings by March 2, nearly a month ahead of when the state planned to lift its indoor-mask mandate.

“It’s not crazy, it’s not lawless,” said board member Michael Summers, who constructed the resolution with board Chairwoman Shawn Hartfield. “I refute that all day long.”

The move, passed in a 4-1 vote in a special meeting announced the day before, came at the end of a lengthy and, at times, tense discussion among board members over the resolution’s legality and the ability of the district to implement the changes.

The resolution states that the board “recognizes the authority of the parent/guardian in the direction of the use/non-use of masks, face shields pertaining to their student and their choices for their children.”

The resolution directs the district to create a pandemic plan “taking into account recommendations from state, federal and local authorities that affords parents/guardians the ability to direct the use or non-use of masks, face Shields for their student(s).” It states that the board “recognizes that COVID is a fluid and endemic virus and reserves the right to return to, adjust and modify this resolution if needed for the preservation of public confidence and trust.”

But Redmond Superintendent Charan Cline said at one point in the meeting that “this resolution does tell teachers to break the law.” At multiple moments during the meeting, Cline voiced unsureness over whether the district can prepare quickly for the changes in the resolution.

Those concerns, in part, led to extensive changes to the original document. Among them: the board extended the deadline for the district to implement the new resolution, which was originally proposed to occur in just two days.

But the controversial resolution represents a significant change to how the district operates to control the spread of coronavirus in classrooms, a move that is sure to divide community members both along party lines and community perception of the pandemic, which has killed 242 Deschutes County residents.

The resolution spurred a series of tense exchanges among board members and the superintendent.

At several points in the meeting, board member Liz Goodrich, the sole dissenting voice on the board, clashed with both Summers and Hartfield over the accuracy of the resolution’s statements, which she said were provided with scant evidence. Goodrich said the board rushed the resolution and wished that the board had consulted with local public health agencies more before the meeting.

“Are we going to be asking our school district to violate a law, putting the school district, its employees, at risk?” Goodrich said.

Summers responded by saying: “This resolution is putting the government back in its lane.”

Summers and Hartfield stood by the resolution, saying that state-mandate pandemic mitigation strategies had infringed on the rights of community members and their children and contributed to poor conditions for students in classrooms.

During the meeting, board members sought out the guidance of Alsea School District Superintendent Marc Thielman, a Republican gubernatorial candidate whose district faces fines for its decision to buck the state’s indoor mask requirements. Thielman spoke at length in the meeting about his experience navigating state agencies threatening fines, encouraging the board members to “take your classrooms back.”

Goodrich noted her concern over the fact that the board brought Thielman out to speak with members, rather than a public health official.

The school district’s abrupt move comes just over a month before the state lifts its indoor-mask mandate for schools. Officials said they would lift mask requirements for schools March 31 and the statewide mask requirements for indoor public places by the end of March.

The Redmond School District, along with almost all other school districts in Central Oregon, said earlier this week that it would move forward and make masks optional at that time.

In a statement to The Bulletin responding to the resolution Wednesday, Oregon Department of Education spokesperson Marc Siegel said the state “is working closely with school districts in Central Oregon and throughout the state to return every student to in-person learning, all-day, every school day. We cannot lose sight of students and families who are particularly vulnerable to both loss of instruction, and the impacts of COVID-19.”