REGION
Saturday, February 19, 2022
East Oregonian
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Andy Nicolais/East Oregonian
Umatilla County COVID-19 case counts continue to drop rapidly, mirroring the statewide trend. The test positivity rate, while still high, has come down signifi cantly.
District prepares for end of mask mandate
1 out of 5 students,
teachers plan to
keep masking up
after end of March
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PEN DLETON
—
Oregon’s mask mandate for
K-12 schools is expiring no
later than the end of March,
and the Pendleton School
District likely will follow
suit.
As a part of discus-
sion on the future of the
district’s COVID-19 policy
at a Monday, Feb. 16, Pend-
leton School Board meeting,
Superintendent Chris Fritsch
shared results from a survey
asking parents and staff
about the expiring mandate.
With the survey garnering
responses from 939 parents
(representing 1,359 students)
and 275 staff members,
Fritsch noted the survey had
an unusually high response
rate.
According to the survey,
only 6% of parents would
stop sending their children to
in-person school if the district
lifted the mandate. And once
masks are no longer required
on campus, slightly less than
1 in 5 parents said they still
would send their students
to school with face cover-
ings. Staff also were asked if
they would continue to wear
masks once the mandate
ends, and a similar amount
— a little less than 1 in 5 —
answered affi rmatively.
Classroom teachers got
an extra question on whether
they had the resources to
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Masked students walk to their classes on Feb. 22, 2021, the
fi rst day of in-person instruction at Washington Elementary
School in Pendleton. Oregon’s mandate on wearing masks
indoors ends by March 31, 2022, but schools still will have to
follow some preventative measures.
conduct online classes, with
70% saying they did. The
remaining teachers said they
needed some additional tech-
nology, such as laptops for
the students.
Even with the mask
mandate expected to expire,
the district will be required
to comply with some preven-
tative measures. The respon-
sibility of contact tracing
will be moved to schools
and whether a person will
have to quarantine after
being exposed to COVID-19
will rely on several factors,
including the staff or student’s
vaccination status and natural
immunity. However, schools
will not track compliance for
students who are opting to
wear masks.
“The rules are such that
quarantine will be confus-
ing and be determined by
variables from case to case
which could add more frus-
tration amongst parents and
students,” the survey results
report states.
Board member Mason
Murphy said the district
needs to prepare for the
community to live with
COVID-19 indefi nitely and
he would be in favor of staff
getting ready for a mask-op-
tional policy so they can clar-
ify its details.
While a small segment of
parents are planning to keep
their students home once the
mask mandate lifts, Matt
Yoshioka, the district’s direc-
tor of curriculum, instruction
and assessment, said he antic-
ipates that number continues
to shrink as time goes on.
“I’m still confi dent that as
we’re able to show that things
are safe and things are func-
tioning that more and more of
those students will come back
and be present,” he said.
Fritsch said the board
didn’t need to make a deci-
sion that night and he could
return to members during one
of the board’s march meetings
with a more defi nitive recom-
mendation and policy.
M-F decides on Parks & Recreation tax Council candidate
By SHEILA HAGAR
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
MILTON-FREEWATER
— Milton-Freewater voters
soon will decide whether to
renew an expiring Parks &
Recreation tax.
The Milton-Freewater City
Council on Monday, Feb. 14,
approved calling for replace-
ment of a five-year prop-
erty tax option of $100,000
to maintain and improve the
town’s parks and related facil-
ities.
The current tax expires this
fall.
If passed in the May 17
election, the new tax would
cost property owners 32 cents
per $1,000 of assessed value,
replacing the present 37 cents
per $1,000, City Manager
Linda Hall told the council.
The new rate is thanks to
the value of homes in the area
rising, Hall said.
When the first $100,000
was approved by voters in May
2018, it was intended to repair
and upgrade the Joe Humbert
Family Aquatic Center, Yantis
Park’s playground equipment
City of Milton-Freewater/Contributed Photo
City crews scrubbed surfaces of the Milton-Freewater public
pool in 2019 to remove a failed coating product.
and walking trails, the city’s
golf course cart paths, tennis
court and ball fi elds. The vast
majority of that $100,000,
however, was used on the
aquatic center, Hall said.
Planned changes included
refreshing the facility’s exte-
rior with paint and adding new
signage, plus applying a new
rubber coating to the swim-
ming pool’s walls.
In 2019, however, the center
closed at the end of July as that
coating failed, clouding the
water over and over, impeding
the view of lifeguards watch-
ing swimmers.
The year 2020 brought the
COVID-19 pandemic, health
restrictions placed on public
gatherings and continuing
issues with the replacement
coating. Smoke from regional
wildfi res kept people inside;
the pool closed for the year
after about three weeks of
operation.
Aquatic facility experts
eventually found the pool
surface and much of its equip-
ment had reached life expec-
tancy and continuing to coat
the plaster did not make sense.
It was eventually learned
the city’s long protocol of
emptying the pool after each
season had caused stress to
the structure. By April, the
council had approved a repair
contract of $172,694 with
Anderson Perry & Associates
engineering services to fi x all
the pool’s issues.
In July 2021, the council
and city officials presented
potential pool heating options
at a public meeting to gauge
how the community wanted to
see money left from the 2018
tax measure spent, Hall said.
After the installation of four
heat pumps and the purchase
of a solar thermal cover for the
pool in winter, she said there is
about $62,000 left.
Council President Steve
Irving said authorizing the
ballot measure must be
approved to move forward on
projects to improve the pool.
The ensuing vote to do so was
unanimous, with Councilor
Brad Humbert absent.
fi eld grows, still no
competitive races
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — There
now is a candidate for every
seat up for election on the
Pendleton City Council, but
voters won’t have much of a
choice in the May 17 elec-
tions if no other candidates
join the fi eld.
Addison Schulberg fi led
for one of Pendleton’s two
at-large seats on Feb. 10,
becoming the fi rst candi-
date to run to succeed
retiring incumbent Jake
Cambier. Schulberg is a
manager at Great Pacific
Wine & Coffee Co., the
downtown restaurant his
parents have owned and
operated since 1980.
Councilor Steve Camp-
bell filed to run for the
other at-large seat on
Feb. 9. Following the resig-
nation of former Councilor
Paul Chalmers shortly after
he won reelection in 2020,
the city council selected
Campbell, a vice presi-
dent and senior commer-
cial relationships manager
at Banner Bank, from a
nine-person pool of candi-
dates. Because of the timing
of Chalmers resignation,
Campbell is running to
complete the fi nal two years
of Chalmers original term
and would need to run again
in 2024 for a full four-year
term.
The other incumbents —
Ward 1 Councilor Carole
Innes, Ward 2 Councilor
McKennon McDonald and
Ward 3 Councilor Linda
Neuman — all filed for
reelection. But no race has
attracted a second candidate
yet, meaning all the candi-
dates running would be all
but assured new terms if the
fi eld doesn’t grow.
The fi ling deadline for
the May 17 elections is
March 8.
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