TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
COUNTY
Continued from Page 1A
the week of July 19-25
came back at a positive rate
of 4.8%, a full point lower
than the 5.8% reported the
previous two weeks. The
rate each week has been
above 5% three weeks in a
row.
People younger than
40 years old now make up
more than 53% of cases
in Oregon (9,093) and the
20-29-year-old demographic
has accounted for more
cases (3,694) than those
younger than 10 years old
and 60 and older combined.
The state’s overall mor-
tality rate of known cases,
even with a record number
of nine deaths Friday, has
dropped to 1.69%.
The national total also
seems to be turning a
corner. It’s been almost
two weeks since the U.S.
had its highest daily
count of more than 77,000
cases reported on July 16,
according to Johns Hop-
kins University. Monday,
Johns Hopkins reported
55,000 cases, the lowest
total since 45,000 cases
came in July 6.
As of Monday afternoon,
the U.S. had more than 4.2
million reported cases of
COVID-19 and more than
146,500 deaths, according
to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,
putting the mortality rate
of known cases at 3.47%.
CDC has reported close to
53 million tests conducted
and a positive rate of 9.53%.
According to covidtracking.
com, the seven-day average
of tests in the nation has
increased to roughly
800,000 tests per day.
SCHOOLS : Mask rules present challenges to education
Continued from Page 1A
The district was consid-
ering a four-period block
schedule prior to the man-
date and is reevaluating
that option, according to
Mendoza.
“We are facing tough
decisions about how to
best educate students while
keeping everyone safe, and
we will work with staff,
students and families to
come up with a solution
that works for them and our
community,” Mendoza said.
McKinley is confi dent
the district will do what is
best for students but said
there likely still will be
problems following the
mandates.
“I think the teachers are
going to do an incredible
job to make sure the quality
is still there,” McKinley
said. “However, the regu-
lations that will be put on
them to socially distance
will have an impact on their
education. The teachers
and admin are going to do
everything they possibly
can. When you put those
restrictions (on) it will be
an issue.”
Parents prefer
students go to
classes
Mendoza said most par-
ents are willing to adjust to
the requirements as long as
it means their children are
able to attend school.
“Most parents have
indicated they prefer their
children back in school
physically, and some have
indicated they would
like online,” Mendoza
said. “Most families are
okay with increased PPE,
increased sanitation and
social distance to have
their children in school.”
Nancy Arceo-Davila’s
daughter Giselle Sanchez,
15, who will be a sopho-
more at La Grande High
School in the fall, shared
with her mother that while
it isn’t ideal, she under-
stands she has to wear a
mask if she hopes to go
back to school.
“She is spending time
online looking at masks
so she can coordinate
them with her outfi ts,”
Arceo-Davila said. “She
wants to see her teachers
and friends, and if wearing
a mask is required to do
that, she is OK with that.
She is adjusting and I
think that is the right atti-
tude to have about all
of this. We don’t know
how long it is going to be
around, so do the best you
can to protect yourself.”
Imbler Superinten-
dent Angie
Lakey-Camp-
bell said she
wasn’t sur-
prised by
Brown’s recent
changes.
Lakey-
Imbler schools
Campbell plan to start
classes Aug.
24, and Lakey-Campbell
said the district intends to
follow state requirements
while still fi nding a way to
get students in classrooms.
“We have a plan. We are
going to have to adjust it
a little bit,” Lakey-Camp-
bell said. “We are just fi g-
uring out if the schedule
we had planned will work
with the new mandates and
limiting student-to-student
exposure.”
Key elements of
Imbler’s reopening plan
include students attending
“She wants to see her teachers and friends, and if wearing
a mask is required to do that, she is OK with that. ”
— Nancy Arceo-Davila, La Grande parent
school on-site Monday
through Thursday with
half days on Fridays for
students identifi ed as
needing additional sup-
port and online learning
for all other students. Stu-
dents will stay together in
cohorts each day.
While elementary
classes will be fairly tradi-
tional, sixth through 12th
grade classes will be a
mix of traditional classes
and online classes. One
of the biggest concerns,
Lakey-Campbell said, is
that following through
with the mask man-
date will take focus away
from learning for younger
students.
“Kids are kids, they’re
going to be playing with
masks,” Lakey-Campbell
said. “Administering it,
making sure they all have
their masks and are on
appropriately, it could take
away from instruction.”
Some parents have
reached out to the school
to discuss the option
of homeschooling.
Lakey-Campbell said the
district is working on put-
ting online coursework
together so that students
can stay enrolled with the
district while completing
the work at home.
“We look at this as
a community and we
want to keep the commu-
nity together as much as
we can. If providing an
online service helps (stu-
dents) stay with us, we are
going to try to do that,”
Lakey-Campbell said.
Masks rule could be
too strict
Cove School District
Superintendent Earl Pettit
echoed Lakey-Campbell
with con-
cerns that the
new man-
dates would be
overly restric-
tive and take
Pettit
away from a
quality educa-
tion for students.
“Simultaneous compli-
ance with face covering,
social distancing and
cohort mandates may be
systemically overly redun-
dant, and makes delivery
of a quality and mean-
ingful educational expe-
riences for our students
all the more challenging,”
Pettit said.
Cove plans to open Aug.
31. Faculty and staff at the
district are revising the
reopening plan for Cove,
Pettit said. Classes will be
on-site with the option to
participate in Cove’s Vir-
tual Learning Academy for
those students who want
to stay at home. There has
been additional interest in
this option since the gov-
ernor announced the mask
mandate for children, Pettit
said.
Pettit also said it is pri-
marily the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education and
decisions at the state level
that will determine the
fate of the school district’s
reopening plans.
“The closer we get to
opening the school, the
more detail and level of
control is directed by the
state and less control for the
people of our district,” Pettit
said. “It seems to be the
state’s universal reopening
plan and ours only in
name.”
Several parents in Elgin
have expressed their desire
to homeschool their children
rather than require them
to wear a mask at school.
Michele Sandgren, who
has a 9-year-old daughter
attending school in Elgin,
said she will likely home-
school her child.
“I just think it’s unreal-
istic to expect a young child
to wear a mask all day, let
alone keep 6 feet away from
their friends,” Sandgren
said. “I can’t imagine how
teachers are going to be able
to enforce that.”
Elgin’s superintendent,
Dianne Greif, said to follow
this mandate it is likely the
school will need to hire
more staff and spend more
money than
initially bud-
geted. She said
the mandate
for children to
wear a mask
is not realistic
Greif
and will cause
more issues for
returning to school in the
fall.
The Elgin School Board
State changes make
planning a hurdle
Union School District
Superintendent Carter
Wells said the frequent,
almost weekly changes in
mandates have made plan-
ning for the upcoming
school year diffi cult.
Union School Dis-
trict has not set a date
yet for reopening and is
spending the last week of
July meeting with other
superintendents statewide
and regionally to deter-
mine what the next steps
should be. Wells intends to
meet with his faculty and
staff for further discus-
sions once he has met with
the Oregon Department of
Education and InterMoun-
tain Education Service
District.
“We recently received
these updates and we are
trying to disseminate this
information as quickly
as possible,” Wells said.
“We are looking at ways
to make this work in the
best possible way for our
community.”
Continued from Page 1A
are positive dropped over
the last week to 4.8%,
down from 5.8% the week
before. Health offi cials
have said they need the
rate to be 5% or lower to
keep the pandemic under
control in Oregon.
The hopeful signs are
a slowing in the rise of
cases. A key measure-
ment is the “r factor” —
the number for how many
people each infected
person passes the virus on
to. Today, the r factor in
Oregon is 1.15.
Oregon Health
Authority Director Pat
Allen noted a New York
Times survey that showed
more than 70% of Oregon
residents are complying
with orders to wear masks
in public spaces indoors
and when unable to main-
tain 6 feet of social dis-
tance outdoors.
Allen said the state
would continue to hammer
the “3 Ws”: wash, wear a
mask and watch your dis-
tance from others.
“It’s kind of a boring
theme, but by dint of
repetition, it is getting
through,” Allen said. “We
are seeing signs in the data
that people are paying
attention.”
Allen reiterated that
any gatherings have a
lower chance of spreading
the virus if held outdoors
instead of indoors. It’s a
message Allen said will be
repeated and repeated.
Oregon currently has
enough hospital beds,
intensive care unit beds
and ventilators to handle
the projected load of cases.
While infections are on
the rise, the largest group
accounting for new cases
are age 20-29, making up
22% of the total. They are
less likely to suffer acute
symptoms, need hospital-
ization or die.
Sidelinger said an
additional 10% drop in
the infection rate would
push the r factor under
1.0, which would mean a
decline in new daily cases.
But any let-up in fol-
lowing the rules could lead
to a 10% increase in infec-
tions that would show up
in more hospitalizations
and deaths.
“Cases would keep
surging and we would rap-
idly run out of capacity to
treat people who become
seriously ill,” he said.
Gov. Kate Brown’s
current COVID-19 state
of emergency order runs
through Sept. 4, the
Friday before the start of
the three-day Labor Day
weekend. The Memorial
Day and July 4 holidays
showed spikes in cases
immediately afterwards.
Sidelinger said the
timing of any announce-
ment is up to Brown, but
that the current numbers
pointed to an additional
extension of the state of
emergency.
Allen said the state
expected to send out
guidelines about possible
K-12 school reopening
procedures sometime next
week.
As of Monday, there
have been at least 4.25
million COVID-19 cases
in the United States, with
more than 147,000 deaths,
according to the Johns
Hopkins University Coro-
navirus Resource Center.
Worldwide, there have
been over 16.3 million
cases and 651,000 deaths,
the center says.
The pandemic con-
tinues to set record num-
bers nationwide. Cali-
fornia, Texas and Florida
accounted for more than
500 deaths on Thursday.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the
White House Coronavirus
Task Force coordinator,
said the three states were
having a spike in cases
unlike anything since the
infection swept through
New York this spring.
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had approved a reopening
plan but when the new
mandate was put in place
the school district began
reevaluating the plan. The
plan called for the school
to open Aug. 31 and teach
in a more controlled but
traditional in-person set-
ting. The district met with
faculty and staff to discuss
the plan moving forward.
“A blanket policy of
masks does not make
sense for the entire state of
Oregon,” Greif said. “The
situations in our smaller
schools is much different
than what you would fi nd in
a district with thousands of
children.”
The lack of connection
between teachers and stu-
dents is one of her biggest
concerns.
“Children need to be
able to see their teacher and
be seen by their teacher,”
Greif said. “Our kids need
to play and learn, not have
the worries that should be
adult worries.”
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