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Nearly 50 public school districts, including Meridian Community Unit School District 15, have been placed on probation by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for defying Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recently reissued mask mandate, according to an LGIS News Service tally.
Of the 47 districts facing discipline, 19 have changed course and indicated that they will impose a mandatory mask mandate. Meridian CUSD 15 is among this group of districts that had a change of heart about applying a mask mandate.
State officials have threatened to cut off state funding to districts that refuse to follow the mandate. Those funds represent 34% of total funding going to Meridian CUSD 15, which had an enrollment of 908 in fiscal year 2019.
Pritzker initially issued the executive order outlining the school safety measures on Aug. 4, indicating that they reflect Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that calls on students, teachers and staffs to wear masks indoors to protect against the COVID-19 Delta variant.
The governor later issued a general indoor mask mandate for those 2 and over.
"Illinois will join several other states that have reinstituted statewide indoor mask requirements, regardless of vaccination status, effective on Monday (Aug. 30)," Pritzker said. "Masks work. Period."
The mandate comes as several studies have raised concerns about the effectiveness of face coverings and school closures in fighting the spread of the coronavirus.
A paper published by the Center for Biosecurity Disease, titled “Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza,” contends that “the ordinary surgical mask does little to prevent inhalation of small droplets of influenza virus (because) the pores in the mask become blocked by moisture from breathing, and the airstream simply diverts around the mask.”
The same study also pointed out that when schools closed for a winter holiday during the 1918 influenza pandemic, more new cases developed than when schools were in session. Thus, school closures can do more harm than good, the study suggests.
A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles ... and offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation."
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Which School Districts Have Defied Governor’s Mask Mandate?
| School District | Enrollment | State Funding | Total Funding | State % of Funding | Reversed Course and Implemented Mask Mandate? | County |
| Central CUSD 3 | 781 | $3,826,450 | $8,556,028 | 45% | Yes | Adams |
| Brown County Community Unit School District 1 | 662 | $4,971,390 | $8,597,964 | 58% | Yes | Brown |
| Martinsville Community Unit School District 3C | 378 | $2,397,680 | $4,481,251 | 54% | Yes | Clark |
| North Clay CUSD 25 | 481 | $3,786,657 | $6,728,628 | 56% | Clay | |
| Flora Community Unit School District 35 | 1,250 | $7,965,549 | $13,648,794 | 58% | Clay | |
| Carlyle CUSD 1 | 942 | $3,602,965 | $11,116,613 | 32% | Clinton | |
| Hutsonville Community Unit School District 1 | 288 | $2,099,852 | $4,318,229 | 49% | Crawford | |
| Oblong Community Unit School District 4 | 517 | $2,959,948 | $6,323,091 | 47% | Crawford | |
| Edwards County Community Unit School District 1 | 824 | $4,698,973 | $9,101,731 | 52% | Edwards | |
| Beecher City Community Unit School District 20 | 287 | $933,098 | $4,123,108 | 23% | Effingham | |
| Dieterich Community Unit School District 30 | 500 | $2,536,936 | $4,834,617 | 52% | Effingham | |
| Altamont Community Unit School District 10 | 601 | $3,545,390 | $7,638,646 | 46% | Yes | Effingham |
| Teutopolis Community Unit School District 50 | 966 | $3,604,350 | $9,898,842 | 36% | Effingham | |
| St Elmo Community Unit School District 202 | 397 | $2,526,590 | $4,817,836 | 52% | Fayette | |
| Ramsey Community Unit School District 204 | 406 | $2,979,534 | $4,868,320 | 61% | Fayette | |
| Brownstown Community Unit School District 201 | 333 | $3,151,193 | $4,869,137 | 65% | Fayette | |
| Vandalia Community Unit School District 203 | 1,271 | $8,211,717 | $18,147,897 | 45% | Yes | Fayette |
| Ewing Northern CCSD 115 | 194 | $1,012,696 | $2,225,168 | 46% | Yes | Franklin |
| Benton CCSD 47 | 1,024 | $6,966,400 | $11,711,761 | 59% | Yes | Franklin |
| Spoon River Valley CUSD 4 | 284 | $1,042,447 | $3,126,410 | 33% | Yes | Fulton, Knox |
| Hamilton County Community Unit School District 10 | 1,124 | $7,889,307 | $14,054,887 | 56% | Yes | Hamilton |
| Nauvoo-Colusa Community Unit School District 325 | 228 | $694,631 | $3,902,853 | 18% | Hancock | |
| La Harpe CSD 347 | 191 | $756,640 | $3,217,573 | 24% | Yes | Hancock |
| Illini West High School Dist 307 | 288 | $1,539,922 | $4,777,966 | 32% | Hancock | |
| Warsaw CUSD 316 | 368 | $2,023,967 | $4,948,570 | 41% | Hancock | |
| West Central CUSD 235 | 706 | $2,775,699 | $9,629,047 | 29% | Yes | Henderson |
| Field Community Consolidated School District 3 | 212 | $1,462,254 | $2,377,736 | 61% | Yes | Jefferson |
| Woodlawn Unit School District 209 | 466 | $2,666,675 | $5,825,717 | 46% | Yes | Jefferson |
| St Anne Community Consolidated School District 256 | 305 | $1,528,283 | $3,802,772 | 40% | Kankakee | |
| Abingdon-Avon CUSD 276 | 887 | $4,296,249 | $8,638,724 | 50% | Knox | |
| Red Hill Community Unit School District 10 | 886 | $5,849,110 | $9,544,145 | 61% | Yes | Lawrence |
| Cornell Community Consolidated School District 426 | 95 | $297,042 | $1,530,591 | 19% | Livingston | |
| Odell Community Consolidated School District 435 | 124 | $676,833 | $2,133,375 | 32% | Livingston | |
| Flanagan-Cornell Unit 74 | 296 | $1,149,596 | $5,313,800 | 22% | Livingston | |
| Meridian CUSD 15 | 908 | $3,379,549 | $9,972,161 | 34% | Yes | Macon |
| Patoka CUSD #100 | 231 | $578,937 | $3,339,408 | 17% | Marion | |
| Iuka Community Consolidated School District 7 | 207 | $1,308,242 | $2,648,502 | 49% | Marion | |
| South Central Community Unit School District 401 | 586 | $4,006,010 | $8,177,309 | 49% | Marion | |
| Brimfield Community Unit School District 309 | 606 | $1,598,882 | $8,202,560 | 19% | Yes | Peoria |
| Red Bud CUSD 132 | 942 | $1,388,479 | $13,682,948 | 10% | Yes | Randolph |
| Cowden-Herrick Community Unit School District 3A | 322 | $2,548,326 | $4,472,191 | 57% | Shelby | |
| Shelbyville Community Unit School District 4 | 1,067 | $5,529,451 | $12,291,344 | 45% | Shelby | |
| United CUSD 304 | 799 | $2,462,251 | $12,881,689 | 19% | Yes | Warren |
| North Wayne Community Unit School District 200 | 351 | $2,197,419 | $4,679,692 | 47% | Wayne | |
| Wayne City Community School District | 483 | $2,941,568 | $6,266,752 | 47% | Wayne | |
| Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Community Unit School District 3 | 664 | $4,251,603 | $7,166,181 | 59% | White | |
| Durand CUSD 322 | 541 | $1,531,479 | $7,399,149 | 21% | Yes | Winnebago |
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