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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 2021)
10A | SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL SCHOOL from A1 “I am just so blessed to be in a building of staff that have just opened up and are ready to wrap around our youth and provide support and whatever they’re going to need this year,” said Tam- my Sandefur, assistant prin- cipal at Cottage Grove High School. “It’s going to be a great year.” New masking, sanita- tion and distancing policies are in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Ed- ucator and administrator accounts at the meeting seemed to point to a gener- al adherence to these poli- cies. Still, the year hasn’t start- ed without challenges. For one, there are posi- tions remaining to be filled in the district. While the district has hired an unprecedented number of licensed and classified staff members this year, there are still 14 positions listed open on the district website. The Human Resources department has reported it is looking to hire more li- censed staff specifically to support the mental and be- havioral health and social emotional development of students, such as school psychologists and counsel- ors. As for the state of staff themselves, representatives from education worker associations provided the school board with an up- date last week. Brenda McClean, co-president of the South Lane classified employees union and librarian at Bo- hemia Elementary School, starting by thanking ad- ministrative staff for wage corrections initiated this year. “We can’t tell you how BY DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Staff at SLSD reported being delighted to finally welcome students back into buildings. much this means to all of us and to all of our families,” she said. “It has given us an infusion of hope, a reason to believe that better days are ahead.” However, she added, more work was needed to address other permanent positions which may be un- derpaid. In addition, the vaccine mandate has created a staff- ing crisis, she said. On Aug. 19, Governor Kate Brown announced that all adults in K-12 school campus communities and all health care workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18. The education require- ment applies to teachers, educators, support staff and volunteers at the state’s K-12 schools, though ex- emption can be made based on health or religious grounds. “So we face the next cou- ple of months with a heavy mix of emotions,” said Mc- Clean. “It is an absolute joy, though, to have the stu- dents all back in the school. And as always, we will be doing whatever is possible to keep them safe and help them to be successful.” A representative of South Lane Education Associ- ation, which represents the certified employees of South Lane School District, echoed that staff seemed to be very pleased with the re- turn to in-person learning. “Where we are right now, it sounds like everyone is really putting in 100 per- cent to make sure that we are we are abiding by the guidelines and doing what we need to do to enable the in-person learning, which I, on a personal lev- el, can just say after a single day is so much better than CDL,” he said, referring to the Comprehensive Dis- tance Learning strategy employed last school year. “And I don’t want to disre- gard all the hard work that went into CDL, but it’s a transformative experience. And we just want to con- tinue to work on keeping everyone safe and making sure that voices are heard.” SLSD Superintendent Yvonne Curtis reported that the first few days seemed to be going smoothly, though there were some challeng- es in transportation as the district started out short six bus drivers and experienced a system crash. Routes also had to be shifted as not all student transportation was covered effectively at the outset. Besides other minor challenges regarding the segue into the new school year, COVID has offered its own obstacles. “It’s important for the board to know that we are being impacted by COVID,” said Curtis, reporting that, as of Sept. 13, there were # around 13 people affect- ed by COVID and a larger number in quarantine. It was not specified if the affected people were staff or students, though the quar- antined people were said to have simply been in the presence of someone who tested positive. “But we are going to start publishing the total num- ber who have COVID,” said Curtis. As of The Sentinel’s press time, no new numbers have been released. Over the past week, Cur- tis was scheduled to meet with other Lane County superintendents to develop strategies for a year which will potentially see a slump in educator positions. The South Lane district has sent two rounds of sur- veys to its staff, hoping to gain insight into who is al- ready vaccinated, planning to get vaccinated or may be asking for an exception by the Oct. 18 deadline. As of last week, around 40 staff had applied for exceptions and some had already been approved, Curtis said, adding that guidelines would have to be reviewed in order to create situations which could pro- tect the unvaccinated and others around them. A handful of staff mem- bers have also indicated they would not be getting the vaccine for various reasons including materni- ty leave and finding other jobs, Curtis said. SLSD is offering options for coaches, volunteer coaches and substitutes as well. “Many school districts are not allowing people who are not vaccinated to serve in those roles,” said Curtis. “We are extending them the same opportunity for exceptions because we want to maintain as much of our programming as we can.” SLSD did not respond to requests for an interview for this article. Visit us on the web CGS ENTINEL . COM CGS ENTINEL Speak your peace. Write a Letter to the Editor. 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