BUCYRUS—At Thursday night’s regularly scheduled board meeting, a mother addressed her concerns over the new mask mandate and its impact on her child. 

“I am here to let you know that I am strongly opposing this policy from this point out. We, as a family, have been one hundred percent compliant up to this point, but I wanted to send the heads up that as of next week, I will no longer be sending my son to school with a mask on, nor am I allowing him to wear one during school hours,” Angela Pirnstill began. 

Pirnstill stated that the line of compliancy was crossed when after six hours of wearing a mask, her son became uncomfortable and pulled his mask down under his nose and was threatened by staff to be put out in the hallway if he didn’t correct it. 

“This has now become unacceptable to me. What once was compliancy has now become control. Surrounding school districts have been given the opportunity to choose, yet Bucyrus has not. Our son is healthy, very active, and does not get into trouble at school. He should have never been threatened to be removed for such a minor event. We absolutely are aware that COVID does exist. We also know that at some point in time, we all, including vaccinated individuals, will more than likely catch COVID, and no mask is going to prevent that,” Pirnstill said. “We are a family that practices our faith over fear, and we totally put our lives and our health in God’s hands, not in the hands of policies, rules, and regulations. Rest assured that if my son is sick, we will practice our common sense and keep him at home. We have no intention of putting anyone at risk but to allow his natural immune system, which is found in the filtering systems of our nose hairs and tonsils, to be exercised.”

In his superintendent’s report, Chrispin stated that since they have enforced masks, the student absences have decreased. The school’s COVID information and resources can be found here.

The board accepted a donation of eight hundred and twenty dollars for the Dorothy Watts Memorial Foundation. Dorothy Watts, board member Deb Hoover’s mother, was an Ohio Reads Volunteer from 1998 up through 2015. Also called “grandma friends,” those who did it would come in and read with first graders to help develop their reading skills. 

The money will be used to buy books for the students to use and will feature a small plate on them saying they were bought in her memory. Watts passed in July of this year. 

The proposal for Unity Club, spearheaded by high school science teacher Abbey Eichler-Clough, was approved at the meeting. The Unity Club already has twenty students involved. 

The board approved the replacement of security cameras around the school’s buildings to up security measures.

The board authorized Chrispin and treasurer Ryan Cook to seek bids for the replacement of the all-weather track. This will be paid for out of ESSER-ARP funds once approved by ODE. 

The board approved the “Oval B” as an official logo of the district and approved red and white as the main colors for uniforms. Black can be used as an outline or accent or for hats, helmets, and coaches’ clothes. The other two official “Bs” are the “Flying B” and the “Block B.”

Recently, a student within the district tragically lost his father. It was announced that staff members pooled together one thousand, six hundred dollars to be put towards expenses for the student. The Bucyrus community was also commended for their support of the young student in such a trying time.