LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Most Jefferson County Public Schools teachers are against the district’s masking policy days before the 2022-23 school year begins with face covering required, according to the results of a union poll released Sunday.
More than 2,600 Jefferson County Teachers Association members responded to the survey when it closed Sunday, JCTA President Brent McKim said in an email. The union is running a second poll through its secure voting system to “further validate the results,” McKim said.
Most of those who responded to the poll, 37.6%, are strongly opposed to the JCPS policy requiring masks when Jefferson County is at the highest category for COVID-19 transmission and hospitalization under metrics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Strong supporters followed with 25.7% of the overall vote.
In all, 56.8% of poll respondents either strongly oppose or oppose the district’s masking policy and 36.4% strongly support or support it. Another 6.8% are indifferent, results show.
Those results largely mirror preliminary results shared with WDRB News Thursday by JCTA officials.
“If an outside group had eventually learned of the survey, figured out a way to submit unauthorized responses, broadcast how to do so, and if a group of individuals had used that information to submit unauthorized responses to the survey, one would expect to see a secondary spike or even a growing number of responses coming in from those unauthorized individuals,” McKim said by email Sunday.
“However; the pattern for the number of responses shown below does not show any such evidence of having occurred. Rather, a normal response pattern where most people responded right away with a gradual tapering off occurred.”
JCTA masking policy poll result responses by day (graphic provided by JCTA).
Most poll respondents voted Tuesday when polling opened, and votes declined every following day, according to data provided by McKim.
The results come as JCPS prepares to open schools Wednesday with masks required inside district buildings and buses. This is the third week in a row with those requirements because of COVID-19 metrics that put Jefferson County in the “red.”
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio told reporters Friday the preliminary results from the JCTA poll did not come as a shock.
“I was not surprised by the data that came out from the JCTA poll. In fact, I thought it may even be higher,” Pollio said. “... There's still out of that poll nearly 1,000 teachers, it was a little less than 1,000, who still wanted universal masking for ‘red,’ so it’s a very, very difficult issue that has swamped my inbox no matter what decision is made."
“I’d like more than anyone for it to go away so that we don't have to deal with it anymore, but unfortunately it’s there.”
The Jefferson County Board of Education unanimously approved the district’s masking policy July 19, but board member Linda Duncan said during Tuesday’s meeting, which drew about 150 people protesting the policy outside the VanHoose Education Center, that she hoped to revisit the matter.
"We always appreciate our partners at JCTA and the feedback they provide to us," Carolyn Callahan, JCPS communications chief, said in an email Sunday. "Any changes to policy would come from the Board."
This story may be updated.
Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
