The Plumas Unified School District Board of Trustees and Superintendant have sent a letter to Governor Newsom over mask mandates and mandatory vaccines. The letter asks the governor for additional support with the challenges that the school district is experiencing through the mandates. It specifically outlines what the district would like to see done in support of continuing educating children, including, bringing more awareness to the public that the mandates lie within state control and not the districts, that the state identify benchmarks that must be met to end universal masking in the classrooms, as well as placing authority over public health guidance and mandates over to the county public health directors who will fit those needs to local conditions. The district also says it is vital that the state maintains the medical, religious, and personal exemptions for the vaccine requirement to honor the voices of their school parents. State lawmakers are set to head back to the Capitol at the start of the year to discuss the possible removal of the exemptions in addition to the states plans to require vaccinations in the semester following full FDA approval that could be as soon as July of next year. The districts fear is that many parents will pull their children from the school and seek other educational options further negatively impacting the county’s schools.
