The board of a rural school district in New Mexico, which voted to continue rejecting the state’s COVID-19 policy guidelines for its schools in the upcoming fall semester, has been suspended by the state’s education department. “The NM PED [Public Education Department] today suspended the 5-member Floyd Municipal Schools board for twice voting to disregard COVID Safe Practices,” the department said on Twitter. It added that it was reinstating Superintendent Damon Terry, who the board voted to place on paid administrative leave pending further legal advice. The school board of Floyd Municipal Schools voted unanimously last month to make mask wearing optional for students in the district. It also voted to let individual teachers to decide whether to enforce physical distancing, and to end temperature checks on school ground, contrary to the department’s school opening guidelines. When forced to vote for a second time on Monday evening by the PED, all five …