Many New Hampshire school district officials are expressing frustration as new data showed 28% of new cases on Thursday were in children.On Thursday, there were 23 COVID-19 clusters in schools across the state. Administrators are pointing to differences between this year and last that are making it more difficult to keep everyone safe. One of the key frustrations is the opposition to policies administrators want to try to stop the spread. They said it is difficult to get to other topics at school board meetings because they are taken up with the debate over masks.After 42 COVID-19 cases were identified in 12 days at SAU-4 Newfound School Board voted to mandate masks in its six schools.They received pushback from individuals at the meeting. “Our children are being used as pawns for a political ‘plandemic,’” said one attendee. SAU-48 superintendent Kyla Welch said they have been hearing similar feedback from parents, but not so much from children.“'They’re suffocating the kids, they’re illegal restraints,’ and all these things we’ve heard, all these stories. But, when you talk to school nurses and teachers and principals, they say that’s not what we’re hearing from our kids,” Welch said.SAU-48 involves eight towns and nine school boards. Each maintains varied policies. Now, there is a cluster in Wentworth with 13 active cases in an elementary school with fewer than 70 students.“We follow the toolkit, which they do, right now. For the Department of Health, it’s strongly recommended that they’re masked inside, but it’s a parent’s choice,” Welch said. The school board for SAU-48 is scheduled to meet on Monday night. “Shifting to more relaxed mitigation strategies definitely has an impact,” she said. “It is what it is, close contacts don’t have to quarantine in the building, just family household contacts, that’s a big difference too.”Administrators pointed out there is no remote fallback plan. So, students quarantining must catch up on 10 days of missed work. Another difference, if enough teachers are out, a school would have to close. Class-time would then be made up like snow days. MORE FROM WMUR: COVID-19 cases rise above 4,000 in New Hampshire for first time since February