Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton A federal judge has granted the Warren County School District’s continuance in a case over the school board’s attempts to dodge state mask mandates.

A federal judge has granted a continuance in the Warren County School District’s mask case “in order to give the parties additional time to reach a possible resolution.”

WCSD’s legal counsel, Michael Musone, filed for the continuance, which was granted by District Judge Sarah Paradise Baxter on Friday. The motion also sought to extend filing deadlines in the case.

“In order to give the parties additional time to reach a possible resolution of this case, the District requests that the Court continue the hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction and extend the deadline to file a brief to said motion by ten days,” the filing states.

They note granting the extension “would not otherwise affect or change the court’s temporary restraining order.” That order halted district decisions aimed at circumventing state mask requirements for students.

Judge Baxter rescheduled the injunction hearing for Oct. 19 at 10 and set a deadline for a brief in opposition by the district of Oct. 18.

The hearing had been set for Tuesday at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Erie.

The school board in a Friday special meeting reversed its prior decisions regarding mask requirements. About 100 people, including the board members, district personnel, parents, students, and others were online for the meeting.

First, the board approved, without discussion, a motion to rescind a previous decision to penalize by only warnings those who do not wear masks on district transportation.

The second vote rescinded a Sept. 13 motion that created a form parents, without need for medical documentation, could sign to exempt students from wearing masks in school. There was no discussion of that motion. The third motion approved the district’s revised health and safety plan.

The attorney who brought the case, Ken Behrend, told the Times Observer in the wake of the vote that the votes “may eliminate the need for the injunction hearing.”

The votes did not, however, render the suit moot.

“The best way to describe it, the lawsuit is based upon violation of fundamental due process rights,”Behrend said. “That violation does not go away because the school board does now the right thing” as a result of the threat of litigation.