THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2022
FROM PAGE ONE
THE OBSERVER — A5
COVID
FIELDHOUSE
Continued from Page A1
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InterMountain Educa-
tion Service District Super-
intendent Mark Mulvihill
is also a strong supporter of
test-to-stay.
“Any kind of modifi -
cation that keeps kids in
school I support and am
very appreciative of,” said
Mulvihill, whose ESD
serves about 20 school dis-
tricts, including all six in
Union County.
Mulvihill believes the
test-to-stay program will
benefi t students in many
ways.
“Less restrictions will
help their psyche,” he said.
The superintendent
added he thinks the pro-
gram will boost the con-
fi dence of students since
they will realize state offi -
cials are working to avoid
shutting down schools.
“We have to learn to
live with it,” Mulvihill
said.
“We have outgrown our
facilities,” she said.
The men’s and wom-
en’s wrestling teams cur-
rently practice in a ware-
house in downtown La
Grande, but once the fi eld-
house opens, the wres-
tling teams will be able
to practice on campus in
the west Quinn Coliseum
gym, which will be free
since the track teams will
be doing winter workouts
in the fi eldhouse.
“It will be nice to have
the wrestling teams back
on campus,” Weissenfl uh
said.
The athletic director
said she hopes that the
public will be able to
use the fi eldhouse in
the future for activities,
including walking and
aerobic exercise.
“I’m excited about
eventually involving the
Other benefi ts
Union School District
Superintendent Carter
Wells, like many other
educators, is supportive of
test-to-stay because fewer
students will miss classes
and in-person instruction.
“We absolutely want
kids in school,” he said.
Wells said that parents
like it when their sons and
daughters are at school,
particularly when quaran-
tined students would be
home alone because both
their parents have jobs.
“Parents do not want
their children to be home
alone,” he said.
The superintendent
added when students are
home with at least one of
their parents, they do better
on the school work they are
assigned than if they are
alone. Wells credits this to
guidance parents provide
students.
“When students are
stuck they have someone
who can help them,” Wells
said.
Unfortunately, this is
not possible for students
whose parents are not at
home, creating an unfair
situation, Wells said.
Some drawbacks
Imbler School Dis-
trict Superintendent Doug
Hislop has mixed feel-
SCHOOLS
Continued from Page A1
The new advisory
encouraged schools to
implement free COVID-19
testing programs.
Seattle Public Schools
closed schools Jan. 3 to
off er voluntary COVID-19
testing for staff and stu-
dents amid a surge of new
omicron cases. ODE said
Oregon is not considering
something similar.
The ODE and OHA
advisory also encouraged
schools to retrain school
staff on safety protocols, as
well as educate employees,
students and families about
COVID-19 symptoms. But
the biggest change sug-
gested in the advisory has
to do with activities beyond
the school day.
“(W)e have really
asked our schools and
other organizations that
serve students to really
be thoughtful about their
extracurricular activities,”
Gill said.
Students approach a
door while an adult stands
outside wearing a mask
and holding a radio and a
clipboard.
That includes either
pausing extracurricular
activities or making sure
they use the same safety
protocols that are in place
during the school day, such
as face coverings.
“We know those mitiga-
tion eff orts work and they
have been preventing the
spread of COVID-19, but
we don’t often use those in
extracurricular activities
such as sports, and we’re
really worried we’ll see
rapid transmission in those
settings unless communi-
ties come together and use
the same kinds of protocols
Alex Wittwer/The Observer, File
La Grande High School Superintendent George Mendoza delivers
the opening address to the La Grande High School class of 2021
during commencement on Saturday, June 5, 2021. In January 2022,
Mendoza expressed support for the new COVID-19 test-to-stay pro-
gram that seeks to end mandatory quarantines for students in Ore-
gon exposed to the virus at school.
ings about the test-to-stay
program. He said in one
sense it is good because it
will keep more students
in school. However, he is
worried about the possi-
bility of a student receiving
a false negative and staying
in school, which would put
their classmates at risk.
“It is a two-edged
sword,” he said.
Hislop is glad test-to-
stay also applies to staff ,
meaning that the Imbler
School District will be
less likely to have teachers
sidelined in quarantine.
He noted that earlier in
the school year there was
a point when fi ve or six
staff members, including
teachers, were in quaran-
tine because of close con-
tacts. A shortage of sub-
stitutes forced Hislop and
Imbler High School Prin-
cipal Mike Mills to teach
several classes.
While North Powder
School District Superin-
tendent Lance Dixon is a
strong supporter of test-
to-stay, he noted that the
testing is only available
for students who have
been in close contact with
a possible positive case of
COVID-19 in a school set-
ting. Students who had a
close contact outside of
school still must be quar-
antined for a number of
days.
Dixon believes the
reason for this may be that
the state does not have
enough COVID-19 test
kits to test all students who
we use during the school
day after the school day,”
Gill said.
The agencies are also
asking families and com-
munity members to do
their part in helping ensure
schools can continue
in-person teaching and
learning. Namely, ODE
and OHA are urging par-
ents to keep students home
if they have COVID-19
symptoms. The agencies
are also encouraging fami-
lies and children to get vac-
cinated and get COVID-19
booster shots, and to limit
non-essential activities and
gatherings.
“Spread in the com-
munity is what may cause
a school eventually to
close to in-person instruc-
tion and go back to online
learning for a short period
of time,” Gill said. “The
more communities can
do to make sure individ-
uals are vaccinated and
boosted so there’s less
likelihood that they’re
spreading COVID-19 from
one person to another, or
less likely that they may
need the services of a hos-
pital and really tax that
system — that will help
keep our school staff safe
and our students safe and
keep them in in-person
instruction.”
ODE Communications
Director Marc Siegel said
the agency is not planning
a statewide return to dis-
tance learning, like what
happened at the beginning
of the pandemic in March
2020. But, individual
school districts will be able
to make that call them-
selves if necessary.
“For each school dis-
trict, that’s a local school
district decision, made in
coordination with local
health authority,” Siegel
told OPB.
have close contacts.
“I love the concept but I
don’t like the limitations,”
he said.
community,” she said.
She warned, though,
that community use will
be delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will not be able
to do this right out of the
gate because of COVID-
19,” she said. “It will not
happen until down the
road.”
Michael Hatch, director
of Eastern’s Outdoor
Adventure Program, said
his program will benefi t
enormously by moving
from its present site on the
bottom fl oor of the Hoke
Union Building to the
fi eldhouse.
“It will be transforma-
tional,” he said.
The additional space
the Outdoor Adventure
Program will have in the
fi eldhouse will allow the
program to carry a much
larger inventory of out-
door items students can
check out and members
of the pubic can rent,
including rafts, kayaks,
mountain bikes, road
bikes, tents, backpacks
and snowshoes.
Hatch also noted that
the climbing wall in the
fi eldhouse will be triple
the size of the one his pro-
gram now uses at Quinn
Coliseum. Its features will
include a site that will
give a sense of what it is
like to scale ice.
“It will have high-den-
sity foam that simulates
ice climbing,” he said.
The climbing wall
will be the biggest in
the region. The nearest
one of comparable size
is in Meridian, Idaho,
according to Hatch.
The EOU Outdoor
Adventure Program
director said the climbing
wall will be so impressive
that collegiate climbing
competitions may be con-
ducted in the fi eldhouse in
the future.
“I am really excited
about its potential,” he
said.
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