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TUESDAY EDITION
September 28, 2021
COVID-19 CRISIS
‘It’s like a
big game
of chicken’
Eastern Oregon may see
exodus of health
workers after vaccine
mandate kicks in
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Eastern Ore-
gon’s health care system could
see a mass exodus of workers
come Oct. 18, the deadline for
Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19
vaccine mandate.
More than a quarter of all
health care workers in Uma-
tilla, Union and Morrow counties
remain unvaccinated, according
to the Oregon Health Authority.
All would be fi red or forced to
resign under the mandate.
“It’s like a big game of
chicken,” said Dr. Jon Hitzman,
Umatilla County’s public health
offi cer. “Who’s going to relent
fi rst?”
Hospitals across the three
counties say they are working
to comply with the mandate, but
none would disclose any specifi c
plans for how they would adjust
or alter operations if there is a
shortage of workers.
“We understand this new
requirement has been welcomed
by some and has caused great
concern for others,” said Mardi
Ford, spokesperson for Grande
Ronde hospital in La Grande.
“While we value every one of our
employees and support their right
to make that choice; as a private,
not-for-profi t Critical Access Hos-
pital, we must follow this govern-
ment directive to continue caring
for our community. We do not
want to lose a single member of
our team.”
Regional hospital offi cials in
recent months have said they
already were struggling with a
shortage of workers. Staff have
said they are exhausted after the
delta variant ripped through the
region, hospitalizing large swaths
of unvaccinated people. In Uma-
tilla County, the unvaccinated
have accounted for about 49 out
of every 50 hospitalizations this
year, according to county data.
Hitzman said he’s concerned
a mass layoff would only exacer-
bate the problems the health care
system is facing during the latest
pandemic surge.
“It’s going to have a mas-
sive impact on the system,” said
Hitzman, a vocal vaccine
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Corban McNeil surveys a group of fellow students in a game of “dart frog,” attempting to identify one as the poisonous amphibian taking out the rest of the class
during the Leopards Club after-school program at Cove Charter School on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021.
Off to a promising start
Cove Elementary
after-school program
serving as pilot project
By DICK MASON
The Observer
COVE — Sometimes less
is more, a thought that likely
entered the minds of some Cove
Elementary School students
recently as they tested mini
trampolines after school.
The children are part of
a new after-school program,
the Leopards Club. The group
had just created mini trampo-
lines with boxes and rubber
bands. Ping-Pong balls were
then tossed onto the trampo-
lines to see how far or high they
bounced. Some students were
surprised to see that the tram-
polines with a large number of
rubber bands overlapping one
another had less spring than
those with fewer ones.
The reason was not
mysterious.
“The trampolines with a
lot of rubber bands were more
rigid,” said Lacey Baird, the
instructor for Leopards Club
members in kindergarten
through second grade and a
substitute teacher in the Cove
School District.
See, Exodus/Page A5
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Instructor Lacey Baird reads aloud to students at Cove Charter School during
the Leopards Club after-school program on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021.
“A number of people told me they thought
there was a need for after-school activities
for children.”
Earl Pettit, Cove School District superintendent
The trampolines are one
many items being created
during a two-week Inventor
Workshop phase of the new
Cove Elementary School after-
school program. On Tuesday,
Sept. 14, students created mini
aqueducts after learning how
the Romans constructed them
more than 2,000 years ago.
Leopards Club members, using
straws and gravity, devised cre-
ations that transferred several
cups of water from one con-
tainer to another over a distance
of about 2 feet.
The after-school sessions, all
free, run for about two hours
Monday through Thursday and
will continue throughout the
school year. Cove School Dis-
trict Superintendent Earl Pettit
got the program started in part
because of community input.
“A number of people told me
they thought there was a need
for after-school activities for
children,” Pettit said.
Cove is operating a program
provided by Right At School,
an Evanston, Illinois, com-
pany that provides after-school
enrichment programs. Cove’s
after-school program is a pilot
project for Right At School.
Pettit said normally the com-
pany runs its after-school pro-
gram by itself, providing its
own teachers and doing all
the necessary work with little
school district help. Right At
School also charges families of
students in the program about
$100 for every two-week ses-
sion they attend.
Right At School is providing
the Cove School District total
autonomy in running its pro-
gram as a pilot project. Right
At School sends activity mate-
rials and provides curriculum
for teachers and advice but
nothing else.
See, Cove/Page A5
School districts grappling with exceptions
Protocol not set for
school staff who
receive exception to
vaccine requirement
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — An
individualized approach
will be used by the La
Grande School District
when establishing proto-
cols for employees who
choose not to be vacci-
nated before the state-or-
dered Oct. 18 deadline and
instead opt out for a med-
ical or religious exception.
Building administra-
tors throughout the school
district will be meeting
with staff members who
have been granted excep-
tions to determine what
steps they will have to take
to protect them and best
address their individual
needs, according to Scott
Carpenter, the La Grande
INDEX
Classified ...............B4
Comics ....................B7
Crossword .............B5
Dear Abby .............B8
School District’s assistant
superintendent.
“Employees will be pro-
vided with options to pro-
tect their safety and pro-
vide fl exibility,” he said.
Options will likely
include regular testing for
COVID-19, wearing masks
that provide extra protec-
tion and daily screenings
that could involve tem-
perature checks.
Carpenter said it is
not known yet how many
employees have been vac-
WEATHER
Home ......................B1
Horoscope .............B5
Lottery ....................A2
Obituaries ..............A3
THURSDAY
Opinion ..................A4
Records ..................A3
Sports .....................A6
Sudoku ...................B7
cinated for COVID-19 or
will seek religious or med-
ical exceptions. Employees
have been asked by the
school district to indicate
by Oct. 4 whether they are
vaccinated or will seek an
exception.
“We want to know
everyone’s intentions
by Oct. 4 so that we can
plan our future,” said La
Grande School District
Superintendent George
Mendoza.
The Union School Dis-
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Wednesday
33 LOW
63/34
Partly cloudy
Sunny and
warmer
‘THE BRICK’ IS BACK IN WALLOWA
trict will also have a sim-
ilar protocol in place for
employees who are granted
an exception from a
COVID-19 vaccination.
“We will be developing
plans on a case-by-case
basis,” said Union School
District Superintendent
Carter Wells. “We want to
create a comfortable and
safe environment that our
staff members approve of.”
The Cove School District
See, Vaccines/Page A5
CONTACT US
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Issue 114
2 sections, 16+ pages
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