STILLMAN VALLEY – When school starts for the Meridian Community Unit School District 223, students will be expected to wear masks.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced this week that masks will be mandatory for all K-12 students in the state.
At a meeting on Thursday, Aug. 5, the Meridian School Board voted to follow the recommendation of Superintendent PJ Caposey that all students wear a mask as the state mandates.
“Last night we had a group of parents who passionately advocated for their students,” Caposey said on Friday. “Which, as a district leader, I understand and appreciate. While I know I personally and many Board members agreed with their perspective on parent choice, local control, and a mask-recommended instead of mandated school year, I recommended that we follow the governor's Executive Order. While this clearly disappointed many in the audience … I felt it was the only prudent thing to do for our district.
“The next steps, however, are also very important and are being talked about less. As frustrating as it is, I urge this community to come together so that we may best educate our kids. Together, we will continue to try do what is best to for our kids and advocate to our local representatives and I will work as hard as I can to continue to build a coalition of superintendents to work toward local control.”
