Schools boards across the United States are under fire for COVID restrictions and protocols – with many board members abruptly leaving their posts. From how to handle COVID protocols in schools to whether masks (and/or vaccines) should be mandated, tensions are running high at school boards across the country.

In August, the U.S. Department of Education put together the Return to School Roadmap guiding schools across the nation on following safe protocols to open. This includes a factsheet for parents and educators on priorities in schools, a guide with protocols, and a guide for parents whose children are back in school. However, many administrators who are following these guidelines are facing severe backlash at school boards from a variety of vocal parent groups.

For example in Colorado in Garfield Re-2 schools, school board member Katie Mackley resigned due to tensions over her wanting to implement a mask mandate for all staff and students in the district. Similar incidents are happening across the country.

For those of us with kids in school, attending these school board meetings may feel too intimidating. Staying in communication with our children’s teachers may be where our priorities lie, but without our involvement at school board meetings, our voices on matters of COVID protocols (and other things pertaining to our children’s education) will go unheard.

In the absence of attending meetings, we can still write to school boards and communicate with the board to let them know about matters which impact our families. It’s vital to work with the school board in a tag team approach that mutually benefits and takes into account health, safety, and wellbeing for students, administration, teachers and families.

I spoke with Bushra Amiwala, who is a board member of the Skokie School District 73.5 in Skokie, Illinois, to find out what challenges school boards are working through to get the job done and keep families safe during the pandemic. Bushra, at 21 years of age, became the youngest Muslim to hold an elected office in the United States in 2019.

“Right in the beginning, it was like how do you help get students [safely] out of school [and engage in virtual learning], and then it was how do you get them [back] into school? How do you navigate that with some of the complexities of certain families who may have pre-existing conditions, and how it might not be safe for even those families to have returned to school?” she says.

The school district Bushra serves encompasses a preschool, elementary and middle school, serving K-8 students. The city has about 70,000 people with approximately 800 to 1,000 students in the district.

She says Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker implemented a mandatory mask mandate across schools in the state in schools and public institutions before the Delta variant and COVID vaccines rolled out. And, many kids returned to school in March of 2020 nearly a year after a majority of schools shut down across the country.

School board meetings, like the ones which Bushra attends, are posted on YouTube. Bushra encourages parents to review those to see what’s happening in the district. These are the meetings where in the past year, many small but loudly vocal parent groups have been advocating against mask mandates, among other things.

The National School Boards Association put out this legal guide for schools in the instance that there is widespread COVID in schools. The association recently asked President Biden to manage tensions in schools, citing over 20 incidents of harassment across the nation leading to hate mail, resignations and disruption of school board meetings.

For parents who want to get more involved or communicate with the school boards about concerns, Bushra says they can write to the school board or make comments during public comment time during the meetings. This is especially helpful if a parent is uncomfortable speaking up during an actual meeting.

“We see it, we read it, and we take things into consideration when shaping our thoughts and opinions and stances and votes on certain topics,” says Bushra, adding that communication goes a long way in helping school board members make decisions on behalf of the students, teachers, administrators and families.

“Attending the board meeting, says a lot. Even though it's the pandemic, we can see how many people have viewed and streamed our videos online, and the numbers kind of speak for themselves,” she says.

Bushra says she wants parents to know that being a school board member is a voluntary job, and she hopes people can show grace and gratitude toward members.

“It is a part-time or unpaid volunteer role. And, people sometimes forget that school board members have day jobs as well. They have other priorities, and they choose to give their time in this capacity. So be patient with your school board members, be kind to them, and say thank you to them,” she says. “They are serving their community in this capacity, and I think at the end of the day we all want the best for students, faculty, staff and community members.”