Wednesday, June 17, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
How will schools reopen in Oregon next fall?
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
Oregon Department of
Education (ODE) Chief
Colt Gill led a digital press
conference on Wednesday,
June 10 outlining <Ready
Schools, Safe Learners,= a
plan developed by the Oregon
Health Authority, ODE, and
Governor Kate Brown, which
includes the preliminary guid-
ance for school re-opening in
the fall of 2020.
Governor Kate Brown has
also created a Healthy School
Reopening Council that will
contribute guidance over the
weeks ahead.
After shutting down in
mid-March and relying on
distance learning for the
remainder of the school year,
educational, health, and gov-
ernment leaders are looking
for how to provide quality
education for next school
year while keeping students,
teachers, and families safe
from health risks due to
COVID-19.
Gill acknowledged that it
won9t be a <one size fits all=
situation for schools across
the state.
The guidance document
states: <These individual
plans will necessarily look
different from community to
community, as each school
in Oregon serves diverse
communities with distinct
strengths and needs, each has
unique physical structures,
each includes different staff
make-ups and local bargain-
ing agreements, each has
experienced varying degrees
of impact from COVID-
19 outbreaks, and each has
access to various levels of
readiness to respond to an
outbreak.=
Gill9s press conference
represented the first of four
informational pushes that will
take place before school starts
as plans are updated. The rest
are scheduled for June 30,
July 21, and August 11.
The Ready Schools/Safe
Learners guideline, though
comprehensive, raised further
questions from media listen-
ing in on the press confer-
ence. School officials have a
lot of questions to answer as
well.
Gill said from the out-
set <to accomplish all this
in a time like this, in a chal-
lenging time like this, we all
need to innovate. It is going
to take a lot of creativity and
thoughts to operate school in
the fall.=
That became clear as Gill
moved through the highlights
of the guideline, which states
<Each public school will
work under the direction of
the school district to develop
an Operational Blueprint for
Reentry that is tailored to the
local context and informed by
local needs.=
For example, low popu-
lation schools might have
an easier time of dealing
with social distancing within
classrooms than schools with
more students.
Regardless, the mainstay
of reducing potential exposure
are universal, including social
distancing, hand hygiene,
creating small group cohorts,
using protective equipment
(face shields, face cover-
ings, barriers), environmental
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The Hood Avenue Travel
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According to City of
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<Public Works has endeav-
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making plans for safe on-site
learning, while also prepar-
ing to instruct students safely
part-time on site and off site
(hybrid) or fully off site (if
necessary).
If instruction is done off
site, it will be much more
comprehensive than what
schools were required from
this spring9s <distance learn-
ing,= according to Gill.
<There will be a higher level
of daily interaction between
teachers and students,= he
said.
ODE updates in the com-
ing weeks will bring more
clarity to the situation and
Sisters School superintendent
Curt Scholl, along with build-
ing administrators and other
team members, will provide
more specific, local informa-
tion as summer progresses.
The district is committed
to doing everything possible
to meet the needs of Sisters
students and families, accord-
ing to Scholl.
The complete 47 page
<Ready Schools/Safe
Learners document can be
accessed on the Oregon
Department of Education
website at https://www.
oregon.gov/ode/students-and-
family/healthsafety/Pages/
COVID19.aspx
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cleaning, isolation of the sick
and quarantine of exposed
people, and recognizing that
outdoor activities are safer
than indoor.
Simply tackling the social
distancing aspect of the
guidelines alone raises many
questions. The guidelines
require 35 square feet per stu-
dent so schools are faced with
taking room measurements
and figuring class sizes. The
cohort concept includes lim-
iting the number of groups
that students move through.
Additionally, questions
remain about how students
will be transported given
challenges of social distanc-
ing on buses.
Gill emphasized that the
immediate work for school
districts lies in preparation for
the fall. Districts are expected
to work closely with county
health authorities as they for-
mulate strategies for safety.
He acknowledged that form-
ing teams within districts to
do this work is a challenge
since most employees are not
on year-round contracts.
Given that most of Oregon
just entered Phase 2 of re-
opening, Gill underlined
that inviting 580,000 pub-
lic school students back into
school buildings creates an
obvious challenge. Private
schools are also required
to follow all the safety
guidelines.
School districts will be
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