A Kane County school board has decided to hold its upcoming meeting virtually after a debacle during its previous meeting.
Kaneland School District 302′s Feb. 14 board meeting will be held remotely instead of its regular location at Harter Middle School, a decision Board President Teresa Witt said Friday she made out of “an abundance of caution.”
Witt said she didn’t think it was “prudent” to hold an in-person meeting after the debacle at the Jan. 31 meeting, which was abruptly adjourned. Some parents did not put masks on during public comment, which is required by the district to attend meetings, before the meeting was called off.
“It was determined that an in-person meeting wasn’t prudent because of the health and safety concerns after the Jan. 31 meeting, where individuals were unwilling to follow rules imposed by the school board in compliance with the mask mandate issued by the governor,” Witt told the Kane County Chronicle. “The decision was made completely with health and safety for everyone in mind.”
The meeting will be broadcast on the district’s YouTube channel, and the public can submit comments to be read aloud by district administrators. Gonzalez said, however, that it’s not the same as an in-person meeting.
Witt said that the decision to hold meetings remotely or in-person will be made on a meeting-by-meeting basis.
“This meeting is virtual, and every other meeting will be decided as they come. We hope to return to in-person meetings,” she said.
Kaneland kept its mask mandate in place after Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order against Gov. JB Pritzker’s executive order requiring them in schools. The district was not named as a defendant in the case.