Education Week - February 2, 2022 - 16

Schools Are Scrambling to Find Effective
And Affordable Masks
High-quality masks
can be expensive
and scarce, with
districts even
competing to find
and secure them
By Mark Lieberman
Even as debate roils across the
country over whether masks should
be mandated in schools to prevent
the spread of COVID-19, many district
leaders find purchasing and providing
masks for staff and students
equally vexing.
The politics of masking aside, they
face a confusing array of online mask
vendors, reports of counterfeit or
dubiously effective masks, fluctuating
prices, out-of-stock notices, and
shipping delays. Those are all on top
of tough decisions about how much
money to invest in masks, and how
widely to provide them to staff or
students.
High-quality, school-issued masks
are among the items students and
staff have demanded during protests
over in-person learning in Denver,
Seattle, Edmonds, Wash., Round
Rock, Texas, and Oakland, Calif.
They see mandatory masking as essential
to keep people safe.
The emergence of the omicron
variant also has led many public
health experts to urge more widespread
use of N95 respirators-face
coverings certified for particle filtration
in health care settings-or KN95
masks, which are similar to N95s but
are manufactured in China and, in
some cases, don't meet standards of
filtration as high as N95 respirators.
Some districts are having a harder
time than others securing those
masks at reasonable prices, or understanding
the logistical trade-offs
when they might not fit or be comfortable
for people wearing them.
Jake Alverson, director of procurement
for the 20,000-student Green
Bay district in Wisconsin, said at least
two districts have recently reached
out to him to ask if he can spare any
high-quality medical masks. One
district was willing to pay for 3,000
KN95 masks, but Alverson only had
2,900 in stock and didn't want to part
with more than 1,000.
" It's pretty tough out there right
now, " Alverson said.
Alverson has spent much of the
last two years strategizing mask purchases.
At
first, three-ply disposable masks
were available in small quantities for
70 cents apiece. That cost proved
unsustainable for the one-time use
supplies, so Alverson switched to
16 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 2, 2022 | www.edweek.org
"
I have never
really been one
to wait on
government
bureaucracy
to do what
should have
been done
months or
years ago.
CODY NORTON
3rd grade teacher
Marie Reed Elementary School
Washington, D.C.
reusable cloth masks, which cost $3
each.
Then, roughly eight months ago,
the cost of disposable masks plummeted
to between 4 cents and 10
cents each. Alverson routinely ordered
100,000 every six weeks or so.
Students and staff already had cloth
masks, but the district's bus drivers
didn't, and having reserves in case
people forgot their cloth masks at
home couldn't hurt.
The recent surge of COVID-19
cases prompted another conversation
with the superintendent. Alverson
decided it would be best to rushorder
1 million disposable surgical
masks while prices remain competitive.
That
order, for $55,000, went
out last month-just in time for the
emerging consensus among scientists
that KN95 and N95 masks are
crucial to curbing the spread of the
highly transmissible omicron variant.
Alverson is conflicted. The district's
health advisers have said providing
KN95 and N95 masks will be
most effective if each wearer undergoes
a fit check to ensure the mask is
snug against their unique face shape.
That process could be prohibitively
time-consuming-assuming the
district can even acquire enough of
those high-quality masks, which currently
cost $1 to $2 each and are selling
fast, he said.
" If we had the money to buy N95
and KN95 masks, we'd likely do it, "
Alverson said. " But then how would
we get 20,000 students and 3,000
staff members all fit-tested for those
masks? "
The constantly shifting guidance
and market complexities since March
2020 haven't fazed Alverson as much
as people assume-he's been drawing
on his two decades of experience
in the Air Force, including four years
deployed in Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
and Cyprus.
" When you're in those locations
in a battle posture, requirements are
changing all the time. You'll have
a commander say, 'You need to do
this,' then change course, " Alverson
said. " My hair's never really felt like
it was on fire. "
Many other school district leaders
likely can't say the same as they navigate
the evolution of the virus and
the tools necessary to fight it.
A push for higher-quality masks
creates logistical headaches
Public health experts have long
said KN95 and N95 masks provide
the most robust protection against
COVID-19. Until recently, though,
most public health entities stuck to
recommending that people wear
cloth masks, which are more comfortable
and easier to attain than N95
or KN95 masks.
But on Jan. 14, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention updated
its mask guidance, following new evidence
that the omicron variant can
more easily penetrate lower-quality
masks than previous variants.
" Loosely woven cloth products
provide the least protection, layered
finely woven products offer more
protection, well-fitting disposable
surgical masks and KN95s offer
even more protection, and wellfitting
NIOSH-approved respirators
(including N95s) offer the highest
level of protection, " the guidance
now reads.
The federal government hasn't
sent masks directly to schools since a
shipment of cloth masks in fall 2020,
before the vaccine rollout and the
delta and omicron variants. It's never
sent KN95 or N95 masks to schools.
Some state governments, like in
California, Connecticut, and Delaware,
have recently announced
plans to send high-quality masks to
schools. Wisconsin, where Alverson
works, now allows schools to request
N95 masks from the state's stockpile
that was previously reserved for
health care workers.
Some districts have taken advantage
of emergency funding from
federal and state sources to fund the
purchase of masks. Prices vary considerably:
The Kalamazoo district in
Michigan recently spent $35,880 in
federal relief funds for 200,000 surgical
masks-or 14 cents per mask,
quite a bit more than what Green Bay
recently paid. The San Antonio district
just got 250,000 KN95 masks for
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