INDEX
Adopt A Pet
Classifieds
History
Kid Scoop
Medical Directory
Obituaries
Opinion
Police,SheriffLogs
Public Notices
What’sHappening
A16
B8-9
B4
B1
B10
A8
A4-7
B2
B6
B7
INSIDE:
Fruit and Craft Fair livens
up the weekend — A15
Boardman coal plant
shuts down — B7
WEATHER
40S AND RAINY ALONG THE
RIVER; SNOW SATURDAY
ON MT. HOOD
‘Hay bank’ helps fire victims feed
their animals.
Page B1
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Wednesday,October21,2020 Volume1,Issue29
$1.00
Learning at a distance
‘It’s not easy’:
Families maneuver
school, work and
equity concerns
INSIDE
LOCAL & STATE
ELECTIONS
■ By Trisha Walker
Columbia Gorge News
U.S.Congress,
OregonDistrict#2
U.S. Senate,
OregonDistrict#30
U.S. Senate,
Klickitat County Board of
Commissioners,District#3
OregonSecretaryofState
T
HE 2020-21 ACADEMIC
school year is off to an
unusual start.
The majority of Columbia River
Gorge schools opened under a dis-
tance learning model in September,
first introduced last spring at the
start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of press time on Oct. 19, no stu-
dents from the Hood River County
School District, North Wasco
County School District 21 or White
Salmon Valley School District had
returned to in-person classes.
For three Gorge families, dis-
tance learning — which requires
logging into a remote classroom —
has proved challenging, though not
without certain rewards.
Cassie Gooding has three
students in North Wasco County
School District 21: Gavin, 17, is at
The Dalles High School, Aubree,
11, is at The Dalles Middle School,
and Logan, 8, is at Chenowith
Elementary. The kids’ schedules
vary — Gavin is in school from 11
a.m. to 3 p.m., Aubree from 8:30
a.m. to noon, and Logan from
8-11:30 a.m., Monday through
Friday. Gooding is a dental assis-
tant, working at The Dalles Dental
Care (Haley Easling, DMD) and
Northern Oregon Endodontics
(Scott Edgar, DMD), located in
Hood River.
“I have had to greatly adjust my
schedule for distance learning,
meaning work as I can during the
week for Haley and adjust my hours
for Dr. Edgar, not being able to be
in the office until after the kids are
done with school,” she said.
Arianne C. Walker has four
students in the Hood River County
School District: Dylan, 17, and
Azrielle, 15, are at Hood River
Valley High School, and Aurora, 8,
and Anastasia, 5, are at May Street
Elementary.
Her elementary students
attend classes from 7:50-11:50
a.m. Monday through Friday, but
“there are multiple log-in times for
each child and the schedule has
been evolving weekly,” she said.
Anastasia has music and PE on a
rotating schedule in the afternoons,
but “my older kids are doing their
classes during that time, so it’s not
Columbia Gorge News
This week, the Community Youth
Center in White Salmon is reopen-
ing to a limited capacity.
This will be the first time since
mid-March the youth center was
in operation. The youth center will
reopen in a modified format, and
at much less capacity than it was
operating at before March.
The reopened center will provide
care for 10 children from six fami-
lies who had been registered with
the center previously. The families
were selected based on need,
including single-parent households
and families who have experi-
enced layoffs, youth center director
Autumn Williams said.
Williams said the center is cur-
rently not accepting applications
or registering new clients due to
capacity concerns. Currently, youth
center staff are preparing a waitlist
for those who are still searching for
childcare options.
“I’ve got a lot of kids that want to
come back but I’ve got to prioritize.
For right now it’s got to be people
who are more in need,” Williams
said.
A12
A12
A13
BALLOTS GO OUT
Above, Logan and Aubree Gooding, both of whom
are students in North Wasco County School District
21, work at home at their respective spaces. Below,
Hood River County School District students Aurora
and Anastasia Maurer study with big sister Azrielle
Walker. Submitted photos
really happening,” she said.
Dylan, a senior, has zero period,
so he logs in from 10:15 a.m. to
3:10 p.m., with a lunch break from
11-11:30 a.m.; Azrielle, a sopho-
more, has class from 11:30 a.m. to
3:10 p.m. Walker works in sales at
Ray Schultens Motors in The Dalles
from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday
through Friday, as well as Saturday
by appointment.
“I sometimes need to stay (at the
office) later,” she said. “I was able to
take a couple days off last month to
try and help in the very beginning
of all of this. Now I’m at work trying
to handle it remotely, through
phone contact with my children.”
Carly Borton has four children,
three of whom are in the White
Salmon Valley School District:
Benjamin, 13, at Hinkle Middle,
Gabriel, 10, at Wallace and
Pricilla Stevenson Intermediate,
and Nathanael, 7, at Whitson
Elementary; Samantha, 3, is in
daycare.
Borton works from home for
Hood River County School District;
this year, she is on a temporary
job transfer to Hood River Options
Academy (HROA) as a full-time
math teacher.
“We spend at least three to four
hours on and off all day (online),”
Poster in Hood River County Elections
office.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
Time
to vote,
and vote
correctly
■ By Kirby Neumann-Rea
Columbia Gorge News
she said. “They have the day divid-
ed so my youngest goes to school
for 45 minutes on Zoom starting at
8 a.m., with a 15-minute enrich-
ment following. Then he has asyn-
chronous (independent) learning
the rest of the day that takes him
a couple of hours. My fifth grad-
er starts around 9 a.m. and has
Zoom meets and asynchronous
assignments throughout the day.
My eighth grader has Zooms from
12:20-3:30 p.m., and asynchronous
in the morning.”
Though each family is managing,
they all report a number of
difficulties.
Walker said the biggest challenge
for her younger children is having
to stay engaged online, “especially
being at home, where they can get
easily distracted between other
siblings and pets,” she said.
The kids have learning spaces in
the kitchen and living room; the
little ones have headphones, “but
it’s still difficult. My youngest wears
glasses and when she puts the
See LEARNING,page3
Youth Center reopens in White Salmon
■ By Jacob Bertram
A11
“Itmightbekindofencour-
agingforthestudentstohave
thiskindofclassroom-esque
environment.”
Autumn Williams, director
The youth center’s hours of op-
erations have changed as well, now
providing care from 8:15 a.m. to
2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Williams said this change allows
students to participate in remote
learning during class time, and
also gives parents and guardians a
greater block of time during the day
when the child is supervised.
With the change in hours of op-
erations, the dietary schedule will
also change, Williams said. She said
she is planning to provide lunches
each day for the children.
Having computer and internet
access, Williams said the youth
center is ready to support remote
learning. Williams said volunteers
will be available on a rotating
schedule, including a metal health
specialist, an arts project tutor, and
a math tutor for further support.
Williams said children en-
rolled with the youth center will
General Election Day, and the
start of election results week, is
just under two weeks away.
Voters in vote-by-mail states
Oregon and Washington should
have ballots in hand, and the time
has come to fill it out, fill it out
correctly and return it, say local
election officials.
If your ballot for the Nov. 3
election has not arrived, residents
should contact their elections
office. See details on page A13.
Hood River County currently
has 15,537 registered voters; in
2016 General Election, the figure
was 13,553 registered voters — a
14 percent increase.
Wasco County has 18,390 regis-
tered; in 2016 it was 15,613 — a 18
percent increase.
Klickitat County has 15,000 reg-
istered; in 2016 it was 13,974 — a 7
percent increase.
“We continue to get a signif-
icant number of registration
each day, about 15-25 each day,”
Darlene Johnson, deputy clerk in
Hood River County, said in early
October.
“I attribute it to an increase in
population in the county as well as
See BALLOTS ,page13
CONTACT US AT
541-386-1234
541-296-2141
Students socialize ... at a distance ... in the reopened youth center in White
Salmon.
Jacob Bertram photo
participate in COVID-19 prevention
activities, including social distanc-
ing, wearing masks at all times, and
getting their temperatures taken
daily. Parents and guardians will
have to sign a weekly questionnaire
for the students to be accepted.
Williams said she is hopeful
that reopening the youth center,
in any capacity, will bring benefits
to the youths and children as well
as the parents and guardians who
participate in the program.
“It might be kind of encouraging
for the students to have this kind
of classroom-esque environment,”
she said.
“I’m hoping the best, it’s hard to
predict anything. We’ll know a lot
more once the first week is done,”
Williams said. “I’m working on my
fourth year right now and I feel like
I just got this.”
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