8A | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS
CONNECT from page 5A
The cost of the project would
be around $1.4 million dollars.
“This represents about 40,000
feet of installation,” Wright said.
To help cover the costs, Siuslaw
School District would front Hyak
that $1.4 million amount out of
the district’s reserve of $3.8 mil-
lion. In return, the district would
get a five-year deal with Hyak to
give students free or reduced in-
ternet access.
“If you’re in the free and re-
duced lunch program, you are
eligible for 100 percent free inter-
net,” Wright said of the proposal.
“If you do not have a student in
that program, you’re eligible for a
25 percent discount on any of the
fiber internet that’s in these par-
ticular areas.”
Once the actual fiber is in-
stalled, Hyak would also be able
to offer its service to homes in the
area, regardless of whether or not
they have children.
Hyak would also be waiving
maintenance fees for the district,
totaling an estimated $900,000.
“While fiber is really expensive
to construct, it is also a moderate-
ly expensive thing to maintain,”
Wright said. “That’s one of the
things we’re effectively donating
to the cause.”
If Hyak began installing the
fiber now, it could be ready for
the next school year, starting in
September.
“The school district is not go-
ing into the internet business.
We’re not going to be putting
things in the ground,” Rosinbaum
said. “What we’re doing is guar-
anteeing five years of connectivity
for a number of students, howev-
er we choose to do it.”
COVID and equity
There were two main justifi-
cations for the proposal between
Hyak and Siuslaw School Dis-
trict, the first of which being the
growing importance of online
information.
“With so many teachers jump-
ing in and getting on board with
distance learning and using some
of the technology that’s been in-
troduced the prior years, I think
people realize that these class-
rooms are a great tool to be able
to organize and have a ready
database for parents and kids for
resources — materials and lesson
notes,” Grzeskowiak said. “They
can go to at any time, whether
we’re distance learning or we’re
back at the regular campus.”
Students and teachers rely on
email for communication, and
studies have shown that access to
online databases helps students
succeed.
“If we’re talking about the
greatest equitable access, how we
provide good, quality internet [is
important],” Grzeskowiak said.
The other justification for the
deal was to prepare for a “new
normal” in the era of pandemic.
For Rosinbaum, “The ques-
tion I had to ask myself, and what
brought this about, is what does
this look like next year, and a year
after that. I don’t know where
everybody sits on the science of
the virus. I personally don’t think
this is going anywhere anytime
soon. Even if we had a vaccine
last month, we would be looking
at a year of manufacturing time
before we could cover the United
States. And that doesn’t include
the rest of the world.”
But how the district could han-
dle social distancing is unknown,
as the school is already facing an
overcrowding problem.
“We’ve been asking our com-
munity for years, since I’ve been
on the board, for a new high
school,” Rosinbaum said. “One
of the major reasons we wanted
a new high school is we’re getting
crowded.”
One of the ways to overcome
this is to have staggered sched-
ules, with students coming into
the school only part of the time,
but also doing distance learn-
ing. While Rosinbaum expected
some funding from the state, it
wouldn’t come until the state be-
gan to seriously look at reopening
the schools.
The issue is complicated fur-
ther with the job losses in the
state. If the economic outlook
worsens, families without em-
ployment could begin to cut in-
ternet services from their home
to save money.
“Internet is going to be the first
things people give up,” Rosin-
baum said. “They’re going to feed
themselves, keep the power on
and make a house payment long
before they’re going to keep their
internet connection.”
However, to get the fiber in-
ternet to the students by next
September, Hyak would have to
begin working now.
“I really want to stress that if
we’re going to do this and have it
ready for September, we’re going
to need to make a decision pretty
soon,” Rosinbaum said.
SUPPLY from page 7A
processing plants play in the food
chain.
A warning was issued last
weekend from one of the major
players in the food processing
sector and the employer of thou-
sands of workers that are now in
danger of infection.
“The food supply chain is
breaking,” Tyson Foods Board
Chairman John Tyson wrote in
a full-page advertisement pub-
lished in the New York Times last
Sunday. “There will be limited
supply of our products available
in grocery stores until we are able
to reopen our facilities that are
currently closed.”
In addition to meat shortag-
es, Tyson pointed out that soon
there will a serious food waste
issue. Farmers across the nation
simply will not have anywhere to
sell their livestock and poultry to
be processed.
At Restobar, Hargens has al-
ready run into shortages of food
items that he would normally use
while preparing his menu. Due
to the shift in focus to retail dis-
tribution, he is unable to obtain
some ingredients.
“I received a call from one of
my food suppliers saying that
we would not be receiving some
of the items we ordered because
so many restaurants have closed
that they have had to deliver
more food to their retail custom-
ers [grocery stores] than before.”
he said.
Millions of animals will be
depopulated and destroyed be-
cause of the closure of processing
facilities. That vast nutritional
resource will be wasted at a time
when food banks across the
country are supporting record
numbers of Americans.
The Tyson Company is the
world’s second largest processor
and marketer of chicken, beef
and pork, and has had to close
facilities due to plant contamina-
tion and lack of healthy workers.
Tyson went on to say his com-
pany has a responsibility to feed
the nation and the world. Gov-
ernment bodies at the nation-
al, state, county and city levels
must unite in a comprehensive,
thoughtful and productive way.
“To allow our team members
to work in safety without fear,
panic or worry, the private and
public sectors must come togeth-
er. As a country, this is our time
to show the world what we can
do when working together,” Ty-
son wrote.
The owners of the Little
Brown Hen Café, 435 Highway
101, Stacy and Mike Wilson, said
“We are reopening for to-go or-
properly with the COVID-19
virus. The FDA’s new “Best
Practices” guide covers different
aspects of safeguarding employ-
ees and the public, covering ev-
erything from food temperature
controls to prevent spoilage and
foodborne illness, to proper sani-
tation and operational guidelines
aimed at limiting the potential for
viral spread.
Perhaps most importantly, all
of these guidelines require work-
ers to implement each step in as-
suring both the continuity of the
American food industry as well
as the health of the American
people — and all of these present
new challenges under the shad-
ow of the Covid-19 virus.
Agricultural workers, who are
frequently seasonally employed
from Mexico during crop cycles,
have now been prevented from
entering the United States. This
ban comes in the form of new re-
strictions enacted by the federal
administration for workers seek-
ing entrance to the U.S. This in-
cludes an executive order signed
this past Monday by President
Donald Trump immediately sus-
pending all immigration for an
indefinite period of time.
The result is a situation where
there is a shortage of workers
who are needed to pick crops that
are currently ripe and those that
will ripen over the next few weeks
and months.
Unfortunately, millions of tons
of food have been destroyed in
the weeks since state-imposed
shutdowns went into effect in
many states.
Specifics of the announced,
but as yet unavailable order, are
unknown as the Department of
Homeland Security continues to
crafting the order. The resulting
uncertainty is putting farmers in
a difficult predicament moving
into the summer growing season.
In the March edition of Mod-
ern Farmer magazine, which has
closely covered the developing
agricultural dynamic, Don No-
sowitz wrote about the potential
problem finding workers to har-
vest this summer’s crops.
“Mexico supplies the vast ma-
jority of H-2A workers to the
United States. Those H-2A work-
ers have applied for and been
granted temporary agricultural
work visas, enabling them to le-
gally work on American farms
on a temporary basis,” Nosowitz
wrote. “It’s a fundamental part
of the American agricultural
system; roughly 250,000 H-2A
visas were granted in 2018, and
the number of those visas has
increased every year for over a
decade.”
Nosowitz added that the Ag-
riculture Workforce Coalition,
which includes several large ag-
ricultural organizations like the
National Farmers Union and the
U.S. Apple Association, wrote
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
this past week urging the State
Department to recognize H-2A
workers as “essential” to ensure
the American food supply.
An additional area of concern
when discussing the evolving
food paradigm is the central role
beauty of having those reserves
is times like these, when we can
sustain while not knowing our
future,” she said.
Blake pointed out that the state
was already predicting budget
shortfalls.
More than 90 percent of the
state’s general fund comes from
only two sources, personal and
corporate income taxes. But with
mass unemployment, taxes have
slowed while unemployment
benefits have gone up. The state’s
next revenue forecast, which is
due in May, will give a more pre-
cise picture of the economic im-
pacts of the shutdown.
“We don’t know about funds
coming from the state level,”
Blake said. “With a 3.8 million
reserve, we can dip into that
but then we’re back to square
one. $1.4 million equals about
14 teachers for our district. Not
knowing what’s happening right
now, I would feel a little uncom-
fortable putting that money out,
knowing that later we may have
to lay off teachers for that deci-
sion. … For me, it seems pre-
mature to dip that much out of
our funds without looking at all
options.”
Blake also questioned whether
or not fiber was the only internet
available.
“I get the internet here in town
for a monthly service, so I don’t
understand what the infrastruc-
ture is necessarily for,” she said.
“Are you saying that’s the only
Concerns
way we can get these kids on the
District Business Manager internet?”
Kari Blake questioned the finan-
Wright replied that most plac-
cial prudence of dipping into the es within the district do have nu-
district’s $3.8 million reserve.
merous options for internet.
“‘I’d love to say we have lots
“It could be Charter, Centu-
of extra money, but I think the rylink, Oregon Fast Net, lots of
ders on Friday (May 1). We will
have a smaller menu, but we have
many options,” she said. “We will
be baking daily our customer
favorites, and we will be adding
some new items that will be easy
to transport.”
The café’s hours starting Fri-
day will be 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Print-
ed to-go menus will be ready to
hand out to customers.
“We love our customers, and
we are grateful to be back at
work,” the Wilsons said.
They encouraged people to
call ahead for take-out orders and
thanked them for their support.
For an up to date listing of the
restaurants open, see florence-
chamber.com.
different ways to get the internet
today,” he said. “How the district
deploys their funds could be used
in numerous ways, and just sim-
ply subsidize them for that.”
The difference, Wright ex-
plained, was that fiber optics
themselves could be upgraded
over time that can benefit multi-
ple technologies.
“It’s an enabler, I guess you can
look at it like that,” he said. “The
technology is dramatically differ-
ent and significantly more future
proof. Some of the things you can
do on fiber, you can’t do on Cen-
turylink.”
During the discussion, Siu-
slaw School Board Member Paul
Burns asked if the City of Flor-
ence would be willing to partner
on the project.
Wright stated that Hyak has
worked closely with the city, stat-
ing, “Frankly, we couldn’t do half
the stuff we do without them. It’s
been a pretty good experience so
far.”
But currently, the city would
not be financially able to help on
the project.
There were also concerns as
to whether or not going online
would lead to students dropping
out, as they migrate to more es-
tablished online schools.
“My take is, Andy can’t pre-
dict the future, and I sure can’t.
I’m open to the fact that I could
be completely wrong,” Rosin-
baum said. “We are in a unique
position. We are a school district
with a lot of extra money and no
red tape that stops us from do-
ing something like this. So now
we have to decide whether or
not it’s the right idea, or a good
idea. And I don’t have the right
answers. I’m going to defer to the
board’s wisdom on that.”
No final decision was made on
the proposal by the board. The
next meeting is scheduled for
Wednesday, May 13.
For more information on
Hyak and its services, visit hyak.
co. Siuslaw School District is on-
line at siuslaw.k12.or.us.
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