The Klamath County School District again urged the state to allow the district to have more local control over how the district battles the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Last week, the district’s five-member board unanimously approved a resolution asking that the school district be allowed to work more directly with Klamath County Public Health on virus mitigation strategies — as opposed to the state.

It was the third such resolution the board passed since the beginning of this school year. The first two came in August and September. As part of the resolution, Superintendent Glen Syzmoniak sent a letter on Monday to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

“It is critical to note that the Klamath County School District Board members feel strongly that they need to advocate for their community and feel disenfranchised from the current process of governing education in their community,” Syzmoniak wrote in a portion of the letter that was in bold.

“While some school districts may have had input into the decision making process, our Board has not been involved,” the letter continued in its closing paragraph. “It would be a great move forward if the governor’s office could begin a dialogue with the Klamath County Board of Directors about how best to serve our students.”

The district has already established a track record of working with Klamath County Public Health while trying to keep local schools open amid the pandemic, the resolution states.

Syzmoniak said much the same in an interview with the Herald and News two weeks ago, noting that school nurses are in contact with public health officials “multiple times daily” when case or exposure rates are up at local schools.

Over the course of the school year, the district has opted to close select schools when too many staff enter quarantine protocols but has avoided some of the mass closures of some of the state’s larger districts.

The Gilchrist School remained online for much of

November and earlier this month, the district temporarily closed Stearns and Peterson

elementary schools for a

week.

Both reopened Monday.

“This resolution is not a request for or against masks, vaccinations, testing, or school closures,” said school board Chair John Rademacher in a release from the district. “It is a request to allow us to best serve our students and staff by applying appropriate measures to deal with specific school situations.”

The resolution noted that it “has been increasingly difficult for KCSD and its Board of Directors to respond to changes that are required within a short timeline.

An example of this was the recent requirement that mandated students and staff wear masks outside.”

The Klamath County School District is not the only district in the county or state to make calls for local control. Klamath Falls City Schools made similar calls for local control in the fall.

Two small, rural districts in the state have gone a step farther than calling for local control and have publicly disregarded some portions of the state’s virus mitigation efforts, a report from The Oregonian said on Wednesday. Those efforts have come with some consequences.

The Oregon Department of Education withheld federal relief funds from the Alsea School District in Benton County this week after that district announced a new voluntary indoor masking policy, the paper reported. Oregon Occupational Safety and Health has also fined the Adrian School District in Malheur County for being out of compliance with masking rules.