Lake County Gazette

Libertyville Elementary District 70 is going mask optional.

The school system made the announcement late on Feb. 7 after a board vote of 5-2 to go mask optional. Libertyville 70 includes five schools educating nearly 2,300 students.

The school district made the decision to go mask optional in the wake of a downstate court order granting a restraining order against mask mandates.

Superintendent Matthew Barbini | Libertyville School District 70

“This resolution goes into effect immediately for all students, staff, visitors, etc., in all D70 schools and district office,” the school said in a release.

Libertyville 70 noted bus riders will still be required to wear masks while in transit due to federal mandates that are still intact.

The school district also noted they would continue to keep other COVID-19 protocols in place, including tracking down and quarantining students thought to be in contact or infected with COVID, isolating positive students, conducting weekly testing for unvaccinated employees, reinforcing hand-washing, disinfecting surfaces and continuing social distancing.

“Pursuant to an agreement between the board of education and the teachers’ union, remote learning will continue to be provided to students who are required to quarantine or self-isolate due to COVID-19,” according to the announcement.

Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow deemed Gov. J.B. Pritzker's blanket state emergency school requirements on masks and tests through the Illinois Department of Public Health "null and void" in a 30-page judgment Friday night.

Grischow said the governor and his agencies were imposing rules on students without their consent.

“Statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules," she wrote. "This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain."

"Does that Face Mask Really Protect You," a 2010 research article by Dr. Larry E. Bowen of the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala., fit various types of masks on a mannequin to study their effectiveness, found that wearing surgical, bandana and dust masks offer "very little protection" and concluded that "wearing these face masks may produce a false sense of protection.”

Libertyville 70’s Superintendent Matthew Barbini was appointed to the position in December 2018. He makes nearly $200,000 per year in base salary.

Barbini, who has been criticized for his handling of the pandemic, noted last year he would not be seeking a contract extension.