NORWAY-VULCAN AREA Schools students board buses outside the NVAS auditorium in Norway on Thursday afternoon. The school board Sept. 8 passed a mask mandate for students and staff in sixth grade and younger, effective Sept. 13. Everyone riding a bus, regardless of their grade, will be required to wear a mask when the mandate takes effect. (Brian Christensen/Daily News photo)

NORWAY — Students in sixth grade and younger will be required to wear a face mask while attending classes at Norway-Vulcan Area Schools, starting Monday.

Staff working with masked students also will wear a mask and students of all ages must have a mask on while riding district buses under a policy the board approved Wednesday on a 5-2 vote after eight to nine hours of discussion over two meetings, Superintendent Louis Steigerwald told The Daily News.

The board passed the mask mandate despite a number of parents speaking against the move, arguing they should make that decision for their children. Several claimed at an earlier meeting they would pull students from school rather than have them resume wearing a mask.

Steigerwald said he was unaware if any parent had done so Thursday.

The board listened to the public’s concerns but also based its decision on input from the medical community and data from the health department, Steigerwald said.

“After all that and a lot of discussion, a lot of different ideas, we reached a compromise on a resolution,” Steigerwald said.

That compromise is students and staff in grades seven through 12 will not be required to wear masks in school unless 8% of students are COVID-positive or in quarantine, Steigerwald said.

School board President Cory Heigl and board member Brady Gustafson cast the no votes.

Heigl said Thursday that masking needs to be a coordinated effort in the community and with other school districts to be effective, as the students still can be exposed outside of school.

Heigl also repeated his frustration that federal and state governments were pushing these kinds of COVID policy decisions, such as masks, on local officials who lack expertise in such matters. While state health officials and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended students wear face masks in school, mandates for now have been left to local districts.

“It’s a difficult position to put us in,” Heigl said.

“The best thing that could possibly happen for all districts pretty much everywhere will be when the vaccine comes out for kids 11 and under,” Steigerwald said. “We’ll have a chance to rethink what we’re doing then.”