The Highland school board had a daunting task: figure out how to implement mask requirements for spring and summer sports in a way that would make sense and wouldn’t require policing.

They came up with a rather interesting solution.

Instead of requiring constant mask use or doing away with them entirely, they proposed to divide the bleachers into different sections.

One part of the bleachers would be for spectators who want to wear masks, and another part would be for those who either don’t want to or only wear them some of the time.

“That gives everybody the opportunity to watch their child regardless of their comfort level,” board member Samantha Holden said.

Superintendent Ken Crawford said athletes would need to wear masks during bus rides and practices, but “when they’re out there doing their thing, then they would not have a mask on.”

He suspected other schools would not require mask usage, or necessarily enforce it as much, for attendees. Crawford also said families wouldn’t need to wear them as long as they sat far enough away from other families.

“I think it becomes difficult when you have families of different sizes,” board member Kathy Butler said. “Nine times out of ten if they’re sitting together on the bleachers, they’re fraternizing outside of our confines too.”

Board member Rachel Longbine related an incident in which she saw a man snap at someone else for not wearing a mask. She said a measure of personal responsibility needed to be maintained at sporting events.

“It’s a little bit of, yeah, be respectful, wear a mask, but on the other hand, if [people not wearing them] bothers you that much, maybe you shouldn’t be here,” Longbine said. “You have to take care of yourself.”

Of course, such proceedings would only last if they didn’t cause an uptick in coronavirus cases.

“This is what we’ll start with. If things go sideways, we’ll have to reevaluate,” Crawford said.

The mask business wasn’t the only major decision the school board made. They also discussed altering the number and composition of credit hours students will need to take.

Currently, students take 32 hours of required courses and 16 elective hours. The board proposed tweaking that to 30 required hours and 20-22 elective hours. In large part, this was due to upperclassmen taking college-level courses in community colleges. Nearby Kirkwood College in Iowa City was listed as a major example of this trend.

“Not that we think Kirkwood’s bad,” Crawford said, “but we also don’t want kids doing just required [classes] here and doing all Kirkwood their junior and senior year, where we become Kirkwood junior.”

The board said some teachers had been desiring more students in their elective courses. According to the superintendent, the most important part of marketing electives is ensuring they’ll be interesting for students to take.

Subjects the board recommended adding included health and personal finance. The incoming freshman class would be the first to have the course changes implemented into their schedules.