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NEWS Pandemic School Year
The state just issued a long list of guidelines for Oregon schools. 2020-2021 may be the weirdest school year in Bend since the Spanish Flu.
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By Laurel Brauns
Laurel Brauns T his fall, local students may go back to their brick-and-mortar schools, but COVID prevention protocols will begin the minute they step on the school bus. Some students may not come to campus at all.
To start, teachers will wear masks, students will stay 6 feet apart and no more sharing crayons or geometry tools. Some kids might stay with one group of students throughout the day in the same area of the school building. Others may come in on alternating days with their cohort.
The Oregon Department of Education—in partnership with Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority—released a 47-page book of guidelines for the 2020-2021 school year last week, helping schools create their own “blueprint” for reopening. The plans will need to be passed by the Bend-La Pine Schools board, then reviewed by Deschutes County Health Services and finally sent to ODE.
All schools must present a plan that will facilitate physical distancing classrooms, as well as consistent sanitization of high-touch surfaces and enforcement of handwashing practices. Highland Magnet at Kenwood School on Newport Ave welcomes nearly 400 elementary school students every year who learn through the Scottish Storyline method.
When planning class sizes, each perStudents create the setting and play characters in many different stories in order to gain an interdisciplinary understanding of a variety of subjects. son—including teachers and aids—must have 35 square feet of space. Students conflicts (like budding athletes), but platform; Google Classroom for elethat video [and learn at their own pace]. will no longer pass through school hallit also helped those who got behind in mentary and Canvas for six through 12. Also, teachers might provide a variety of ways en masse between classes; instead, classes or needed advanced classes that If we have to close for several days at assignment options online to increase teachers will move. weren’t offered at the right time. During some point, the plan is that teachers, engagement. This is something that
Lora Nordquist, BLPS interim superthe 2018-2019 school year, the proparents and students will already know could be great all the time.” intendent, said the biggest challenge gram served more than 4,000 students, how to make it work.” will be the physical distancing and with 700 who received the bulk of their Canvas is the leading online platPlaying by the rules space requirement. instruction online only. form for colleges in the U.S., surpassing The state requires rigorous sanitaBlackboard in 2018, according to Inside tion protocols: everything from desks Higher Ed, a digital media company for to library books must get wiped down. "We are very interested in getting all students who want to be in schools back in,” she said. “For higher education. Scheduling for physical distance But students don’t have to wear masks: The guidelines state in bold that students without masks “must be provided families that have a medical reason or feelings of concern during the age of COVID before a vaccine, This fall, schools in Oregon can choose from three models: in-person classes, all online or a hybrid of both. access to instruction.” No mask shaming in Oregon schools. All staff who come into contact we are really fortune to have an online program." The state’s guidelines promote synchronistic teaching models whenevwith students will have to wear masks, including bus drivers and the people —Lora Nordquist, Bend-La Pine Schools er possible. This means in a hybrid who work in the kitchen. In some cases, interim superintendent classroom, half the students could be in class, while the other half watch office staff might set up plastic barriers at their desks or just wear large, clear the classroom activities from home face shields throughout the day. and then the groups switch the next Everyone entering the school
“We are very interested in getting all What happened this spring was not a day. But everyone is learning the same building will be screened for the typstudents who want to be in schools back matter of simply moving whole schools material at the same time. ical COVID-19 symptoms and those in,” she said. “For families that have a onto this online program. Teachers But the opportunities for asynchrowho do show any signs of illness will medical reason or feelings of discomfort retained their pre-COVID responsibilnistic learning—or participating in class be isolated and then sent home. In about returning in the age of COVID ities and met with students in virtual activities at different times than othorder to come back to school, anybefore a vaccine, we are really fortunate classrooms. They created video lessons er students—may be one of the bright one sent home will have to get tested to have an online program.” and delivered assignments through a sides of adjusting to life during the panfor COVID-19 or wait three days after sometimes confusing array of online demic, Nordquist said. their fever breaks, regardless even if Going online platforms. “This spring many teachers made they test negative. If anyone does test
BLPS has offered an online program “We learned a lot of lessons this videos of individual lessons,” she said. positive, they’ll have to wait a minifor K-12 students since 2006, originalspring,” Nordquist said. “We have “Now a student who might be too shy to mum of 10 days before returning or ly created for students with scheduling decided to be on one consistent ask a question in class, they can access after testing negative twice.
The ODE included a number of recommendations for schools to promote culturally responsive and anti-racist teaching, and to address “student belonging, student engagement, supportive relationships, wellbeing, and addressing racism, xenophobia, sexual harassment, and other forms of bullying and harassment.”
The plan noted that discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans has increased since the pandemic began. Schools must also check with their local tribal agencies before sending in their plan.
Rumblings of Local Dissent
Not everyone is thrilled about the state’s guidance and mandates.
Rep. Cheri Helt (R-Bend) released a statement on June 10 asserting that Oregonians have the right to an education, along with a call to make sure the new rules from the state are not “excessive and unrealistic.”
“Failure to open is unacceptable and unfair to all our kids and families. We cannot sacrifice two years of learning to fear and a lack of creativity. Local districts should be allowed to design safe classroom learning experiences,” Helt said.
Helt told the Source her primary concern is that the regulations from the state are a one-size-fits-all solution which could make education impossible to deliver at a local level, especially in the face of budget cuts. She expressed frustration with the requirement that every person needs 35 feet of space: This could pose an obvious impediment in older schools or in classes with traditionally larger student counts.
Nordquist also took some issue with the 35-square-feet requirement, noting that given the current science around distancing, it seems somewhat arbitrary. Particularly in BLPS, even an extra 5 square feet per person of space could make or break some plans to provide in-classroom instruction to all students, five days a week, she said.
“We know we play an important childcare function, for both parents in the community and also our own staff; we have quite a few teachers with young children,” Nordquist said. “Part of our thinking is to try to at least get [full-time, in-person instruction] for students through sixth grade.”
Oregon is one of only three states that has a minimum legal age to leave kids home alone, and that may be the only option for some parents this fall. Oregon’s requirement is 10 years old, while Illinois is 14 and Maryland is 8, according to the federal government’s child welfare department.
Lora Nordquist is the Bend-La Pine Schools interim superintendent for the 2020-2021 school year. The BLPS board voted to promote her to the position for one year and put the search to find a new superintendent on hold during the pandemic.
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Sheriff launches investigation after image surfaces on social media of deputies using force on woman near Bend
By Nicole Vulcan
The Deschutes County Sheriff's office announced Monday that it is investigating an incident that may have involved sheriff's deputies placing a knee "on or near a woman's neck" as they were arresting her. The incident looks like it happened last year, DCSO stated. Deschutes River Woods to locate a child who a judge had deemed to be in danger. "The mother was resisting and blocking deputies and repeatedly called 911 while the deputies were at the residence attempting to locate the child. The mother received warnings about the crime of Improper Use of 911, yet
According to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, an image is "circulating on social media that appeared to show two of our deputies holding down a female subject, while one of them had a knee on or near her neck."
According to DCSO, an image is "circulating on social media that appeared to show two of our deputies holding down a female subject, while one of them had a knee on or near her neck." The photo appears to be a screen shot of cell phone video taken on June 11, 2019. A news release from DCSO today said the deputies were at a home in after they left the residence, she called 911 again when no emergency existed. Deputies returned to the residence to arrest her for Improper Use of 911 when this incident of force occurred," the release read.
The child was found later in the day riding bikes near the home, DCSO Sgt. William Bailey told the Source, and was returned to their father. The department is not releasing the names of the woman arrested, as "the case is currently being prosecuted by the Deschutes County DA's office," Bailey wrote in an email. The deputies' names are also being withheld pending an internal investigation, Bailey told the Source.
By Laurel Brauns
Courtesy Deschutes County Sheriff's Office
Zero COVID-positive cases found in OSU Study
Researchers conclude one in 1,000 people in Bend had an active case of COVID-19 during study
The Team-based Rapid Assessment of Community-Level Coronavirus Epidemics, or TRACE study, is led by a group of researchers at OSU that wants to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 in certain communities. It began in Corvallis in April, and then moved on to Bend at the end of May. The researchers will go to Newport next weekend where 120 workers at Pacific Seafood (processing plants) have tested positive.
Even though Bend’s test results from the randomized study were zero, researchers concluded that one out of 1,000 people in Bend have contagious cases of COVID-19 based on modeling and prior cases reported by the Oregon Health Authority. This adds up to an estimated 100 cases within Bend’s population of 100,421. As of June 16, Deschutes County Health Services reported 137 positive cases since testing began three months ago, and 122 of these people have recovered.
Last month, a group of field teams working with Oregon State University fanned out across Bend to test households for COVID-19. They tested 615 people in Bend, and no one tested positive.
“This level of prevalence is consistent with Bend residents being careful about social distancing, wearing masks and staying home prior to Phase One reopening in Deschutes County,” said project leader Ben Dalziel, an assistant professor at OSU’s College of Science. “One in 1,000 is low, but the virus is still in the population and we know it is readily transmitted.”
Another project co-leader, Jeff Bethel, an associate professor at OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences, said that even when the general population has a low prevalence, clusters may emerge quickly in highrisk environments, such as the food processing facilities in Newport and others around the U.S.
The OSU researchers corroborated with another prevalence study in Bend conducted by Biobot Analytics that has been testing waste water samples in certain Bend neighborhoods for COVID-19. Researchers from that study estimated hundreds of cases in Bend during a few non-consecutive weeks in April, but found no traces since April 28.
The field teams didn’t perform antibody tests, which may have
Seeing what appears to be an officer put a knee on the neck of a person being arrested is a pain point in a country currently rocked by protests against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died May 25 after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. "Sheriff Nelson has ordered a complete review of this image and the force depicted in it. The sheriff ’s office takes these matters very seriously and he promises a complete review of the force utilized by the two deputies. We are working to obtain a copy of the video from the subject that posted the image to social media," the DCSO release said.
Oregon State University
Coronavirus testers visited 30 neighborhoods in Bend May 30-31 and tested hundreds of willing participants. The goal was to discover the prevalence of active COVID-19 cases in the general population.
demonstrated how many people in the county had coronavirus in the past. St. Charles Health System reported on April 26 that the FDA has only approved a few antibody tests and that many tests sold online or on the underground market are fraudulent. Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the World Health Organization said that a positive antibody test does not definitively equal immunity.
