The Mountain Home City Council on Thursday night lent its support to the Mountain Home School District as it gears up to return to classroom instruction amid the surging delta variant of COVID-19.
Council members voted 7-0 with one member absent to adopt a resolution that the city “supports efforts to allow the Mountain Home School Board and administrators to address the public health emergency.”
Thursday’s resolution has no binding power; it merely expresses the City Council’s sentiment towards the Mountain Home School District. Council members voting in favor of the resolution were Bob Van Haaren, Susan Stockton, Jennifer Baker, Wayne Almond, Carry Manuel, Jim Bodenhamer and Nick Reed. Council member Paige Evans was absent.
The resolution was sponsored by Bodenhamer, who said, “With school starting and the COVID situation, I feel strongly those of us in government need to show support for educators in what likely will be a challenging year, to put it mildly.”
The school district has announced it will continue most of the COVID prevention protocols from last school year with the exception of mandatory mask usage. Schools and other governmental entities are now prohibited from issuing mask mandates under Act 1002, which was passed by the state Legislature in late April and took effect on July 1.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson called legislators to Little Rock earlier this week with the request they consider amending Act 1002 to give local school districts the ability to decide whether a mask mandate was appropriate for their own students. Legislators considered several possible amendments to Act 1002, but eventually adjourned without making any changes to the existing law.
The Marion School District, which resumed in-class instruction two weeks ago and now has more than 900 students quarantining after COVID exposures, has sued the state over Act 1002. The Little Rock School District and Pulaski County, which also want to enact their own mask mandates, have also sued over the existing law.
On Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Fox issued a preliminary injunction against Act 1002. That ruling appears headed on appeal to the state Supreme Court, perhaps as early as next week.
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