CCISD board approves employee winter storm wages, parent speaks out against masks

By BRITTANY FHOLER 

Cove Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a resolution authorizing missed wages to employees who were unable to work during Winter Storm Uri last month and additional compensation to the essential employees who came in to work during the storm during the board meeting Tuesday evening. 

CCISD was closed due to the ice and snow and frigid temperatures caused by Winter Storm Uri during the week of February 15 - 19, 2021, and nearly all of the CCISD facilities were without power due to blackouts caused by an unstable electric grid. All CCISD employees, with the exception of essential personnel, were “idled” as a result. The essential personnel included a limited number of maintenance and custodial staff. 

With this resolution, all district employees who were idled will receive their full wages for the dates identified, and the essential employees who worked through the storm will receive additional compensation in the amount of $30,628.65 to be divided among the essential employees. 

Superintendent Joseph Burns also recognized this “distinguished group” of maintenance and custodial staff members for their work during Winter Storm Uri during the Recognition portion of the board meeting. 

“This esteemed crew right here…they’re the ones that showed up in the middle of the snow and the ice, and they dealt with water leaks and collapsed ceilings and walls that had problems, and they worked on meters and all those other things,” Burns said about the maintenance employees. He added that the custodial staff members did a wonderful job in making sure that the campuses were cleaned up and water was removed from the buildings. 

“We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude,” Burns said before presenting the crew with a frame featuring different Cove Leader-Press articles detailing the work the employees did. 

He added that “by no small figment of the imagination,” the Maintenance and custodial staff members saved the district hundreds of thousands of dollars with their work. 

Of the district’s 11 campuses, damage was reported at six of them. Burns said the district is still awaiting a breakdown of the findings from the insurance adjusters to see what the district’s responsibility will be. He said he is expecting the district’s responsibility will be its $25,000 deductible. 

The district then recognized campuses for their efforts in the United Way campaign. The total amount raised through all campuses was $31,469.89. The winner for Year Over Year Increase was Crossroads High School, which raised $1,119.25, a 142 percent increase compared to last year. The Per Capita Award went to Williams/Ledger Elementary School, which had a per capita of $70.35 per employee and 93 employees. Williams/Ledger Elementary also took home the award for Most Money Raised, raising a total of $6,543.00. 

The district also recognized CCHS Junior Adam Hirsch for being an All-State Choir qualifier. 

The board approved a resolution to nominate Burns for the Texas Association of School Boards 2021 Superintendent of the Year. 

The board also approved an exception to Education Code 44.031 which allows the district to procure emergency services in the event of major operational or structural failure. This allows the district to bypass the procurement requirements if the board determines that there would be a delay posed in using the normal procurement process which would prevent or substantially impair the conduct of classes or other essential school activities. Due to the pipes bursting and other issues because of the Winter Storm, the district used Belfor Property Restoration to begin the recovery process on Feb. 16, on a work authorization for Copperas Cove Junior High School. Other campuses were added as leaks were found.

The board selected Choosing the Best Publishing to provide the Wellness and Sexual Health Curriculum for students in 6th grade through 10th grade. 

This curriculum will “address relationship education, character education and the public health epidemic of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by encouraging adolescent health promotion and promoting adolescent disease prevention,” according to the agenda. 

The Choosing the Best program’s goals are “maintaining abstinence and returning to abstinence from all associated risk behaviors, including alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and sexual activity.  Students receive holistic, developmentally appropriate instruction which: promotes healthy relationship skills with a strong focus on abstinence until marriage; builds resistance skills; future orientation, and goal setting skills; and increases protective factors such as boundary setting and parental involvement,” according to the agenda. 

Participation in the program is voluntary and parents will have the opportunity to indicate their preference for their child’s participation in this program.  

Choosing the Best says they are a curriculum that is “consistent with Title V Federal guidelines A-H for abstinence-centered, sexual risk avoidance education” and that “a recent published study indicated that students who received Choosing the Best were nearly 1.5 times more likely to delay the onset of sexual behavior than students who did not receive the program.”

Killeen parent speaks out against mask wearing 

During the citizen’s forum, Eric Dominoswki, of Killeen, spoke against the district’s decision to continue requiring students to wear masks on campus. He said his son, an 8th grader, has been doing virtual schooling since mid-March 2020 due to the district’s mask policy. He said he and his wife, who he said has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is employed at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple, have “concluded that masks are not beneficial, and quite the contrary to be very harmful, especially to our children.”

Dominowski said his family will not wear masks ever and that he was disappointed that Texas parents were “not involved in the decision-making process when it comes to putting masks on our children.”

He continued to say that the district is “in direct violation of Texas Education Code 37.0023 “Prohibited Aversive Techniques”” which he said specifically prohibits any technique “that impairs the student’s breathing, including any procedure that involves obstructing the student’s airway, including placing an object in, on, or over the student’s mouth or nose or placing a bag, cover, or mask over the student’s face.” 

“I would like to have an answer from the district on how it is possible that TEA strictly prohibits placing a mask over a student’s face during aversion techniques, but Copperas Cove Independent School District finds it perfectly acceptable to force a mask on a student’s face for the entirety of the day, day after day,” Dominowski said. “Mr. Burns replied to this question to me via email stating to me that when a mask is properly fitted, it does not impair the breathing of the person wearing the mask. Well, I’m sorry, Mr. Burns, that’s absolutely incorrect.”

The board was not allowed to respond to Dominowski regarding any specific concerns raised during the Open Forum portion, which Board President Joan Manning explained. 

The district announced that it would be keeping its mask policy in place last week, following guidance from the Texas Education Association after Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the state-wide mask mandate and removed limits on capacity throughout the state. TEA guidance stated that districts would be able to make their own decisions on whether to keep or lift their mask policies.  

The TEA’s Public Health Guidance document, dated March 4, 2021, states that all students, teachers and staff members shall “wear a mask over the nose and mouth when inside a school building, school facility, facility used for school activities or when in an outdoor space on school property or used for school activities, wherever it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household; provided, however, that this mask requirement does not apply to the following: Any person younger than 10 years of age, except where a school system determines it is developmentally appropriate; Any person with a medical condition or disability that prevents wearing a mask; Any person while the person is consuming food or drink, or is seated in a dining area to eat or drink; Any person while the person is: (a) exercising outdoors or engaging in physical activity outdoors; and (b) maintaining a safe distance from other people not in the same household; or Any person while the person is giving a speech for a broadcast or to an audience.”