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SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
5
School districts continue to grapple with changing rules
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
After months of meetings and
reviewing guidance from the Ore-
gon Department of Education, local
school districts developed plans for
the start of the school year amid a
global pandemic.
As COVID-19 cases continued
to climb, the four districts that a
majority of Tribal students attend –
Willamina, Sheridan, McMinnville
and Salem-Keizer – updated their
reopening plans from a hybrid mod-
el of in-person and remote learning
to fully online to begin the school
year.
Then, the guidelines were updat-
ed for a final time on Tuesday, Aug.
11, to allow for limited in-person
instruction with small groups based
on certain protocols.
“The new metrics require close
partnership between school districts
and local public health authorities
to oversee a return to in-person
instruction in small communities
not impacted by COVID-19,” a
Department of Education press
release stated. “The metrics also
clarify limited in-person opportuni-
ties in schools required to operate
through comprehensive distance
learning. Our priority is to return to
in-person instruction as soon as it
can be accomplished with stability
and safety.”
Willamina School District Su-
perintendent Carrie Zimbrick said
that the new guidelines have “a
lot of rigor.” In-person instruction
will be limited to groups of 10 with
a two-hour per day time limit and
250 students per building, per
week. Students cannot be in more
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
The Willamina School District’s Oaken Hills campus will be without students
when the new school year begins on Tuesday, Sept. 15, because of the persistent
prevalence of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Yamhill and Polk counties.
than two groups per day. Staff are
limited to three groups of students
per day and no more than five per
week.
Zimbrick said the district was
in meetings to discuss a plan for
limited in-person instruction for
students. She tentatively expects
this to begin in late September. The
school year will begin on Tuesday,
Sept. 15.
“There are no onsite meals, recess
and a bus can have no more than 10
at one time,” Zimbrick said. “(We’re)
back to the drawing board.”
The kindergarten through third-
grade in-person learning exception
outlined in previous state guidance
requires counties to have less than
30 cases per 100,000 and test pos-
itivity rates of less than 5 percent.
“We still don’t meet the criteria
for the K-3 exception, but we can
do the 10-person cohorts based on
ODE criteria,” Zimbrick said.
In a message posted to the Sheri-
dan School District website, Super-
intendent Dorie Vickery said the
updates could potentially affect the
start of school, particularly since
Sheridan has more than 10 percent
of its staff living in Yamhill County.
Before the updated guidance was
released, the district planned to
start the school year on Tuesday,
Sept. 8, with remote learning.
“This guidance provides new
information that impacts how we
determine when to safely open
schools and how to best serve stu-
dents within the current safety and
health requirements,” Vickery said.
“Currently, we are working on a
plan to bring in several groups of 10
students for two hours for a variety
of learning activities.”
Earlier guidance issued on July
28 by the Oregon Health Author-
ity and Oregon Department of
Education resulted in most school
districts opting for comprehensive
distance learning.
Each school district was tasked
with determining the decision
based on COVID-19 numbers in
the county in which it is located in
addition to overall state numbers. If
a district serves students in multi-
ple counties, case rates and positive
numbers must be considered for
each county.
That guidance specified that
county cases must be below 10 per
100,000 people in the past seven
days for three weeks, and positive
test results must be less than 5
percent in the preceding seven days
for three weeks at both the county
and state levels.
Exceptions for students in kin-
dergarten through third grade,
remote and rural school districts
with fewer than 100 students, stu-
dents with disabilities and those in
programs such as career technical
education would be made provided
there was not active COVID-19
school community spread. Also,
county cases must be below 30 per
100,000 people in the past seven
days for three weeks, and positive
test results countywide must be
less than 5 percent in the preceding
seven days for three weeks.
The Aug. 11 guidance will not
change how the McMinnville School
District plans to begin the year.
Distance learning will start on
Monday, Sept. 14.
“We are working on plans to use
the exception provision to offer
some limited small group learning
opportunities, but those plans are
not yet firm,” Communications Di-
rector Laurie Fry said.
The district is turning its focus
to equity in the delivery of online
learning.
“We have enough Chromebooks to
check out a device to every student
in our district and have checked out
most of them,” Fry said. “We offered
a paper packet version to families
who requested them. Some families
live too far out to receive adequate
Internet service, although we have
been working with some providers
in our area to improve that. We are
also working to set up some dedicat-
ed areas in our schools for families
to access the district Wi-Fi.”
The district also is reaching out
to families who did not participate
much in distance learning during
the spring, and also offering parent
training sessions for those who
need technical assistance.
“Our goal is to have every student
engaged in the learning process,”
Fry said.
The Salem-Keizer School District
is still evaluating whether the up-
dated guidelines will affect its plan
to begin comprehensive distance
learning on Monday, Sept. 14.
“Our leaders are still working to
interpret the new guidance and to
see what it means for our options
for limited in-person opportuni-
ties,” District Public Engagement
Specialist Aaron Harada said.
For more information on the up-
dated guidelines, visit www.oregon.
gov/ode, and click on the “Ready
Schools, Safe Learners” tab. 
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Sheridan, SW Polk and West Valley Fire Districts
are recruiting volunteers for fire response,
emergency medical response, and support functions.
Please see our websites for volunteer applications
and instructions.
sheridanfd.org – swpolkfd.org – westvalleyfd.org