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COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | NOVEMBER 11, 2021 | 11A from A7 and the work that it’s taken to get us here and it is a sad day.” “But this year, the staff, the students, the parents and the community members, as a whole, are looking to this administration led by the superintendent for leader- ship past the pandemic and I’m afraid they are going to have to keep looking unless you the board of directors intervene and do what is truly best for kids and right this wrong,” she ended. Following the vote for dismissal, Board President Dustin Bengtson spoke. “I want to thank every- body for their time and testimony today,” he said. “I know that this is one of the hardest days for us as a board and for the staff members that are affected. We appreciate everything Superintendent Response In an interview with The Sentinel after the board meeting, Superintendent Curtis expressed disap- pointment with the final result. However, she said she felt the process of creating the document of expecta- tions for unvaccinated staff had been conducted openly and shouldn’t have been a surprise. Changes were made along the way as some raised con- cerns about the phrasing or requests in the document, “But each time I [changed] it, I sent the new draft to everyone and told them they would all be held to the most current version,” she SLSD said. “And then before we were done, I invited them all to sign the most current version, which everyone did except [the five who were dismissed].” Curtis added that most responses were positive during the process, but that a handful of staff felt the changes diminished trust. Curtis did acknowledge Shipley’s criticism regard- ing an “outing” with a bulk email, though. In September, the district sent a survey out to all staff asking if they were com- pletely vaccinated, planning to get vaccinated, or plan- ning to apply for a medical or religious exemption. For those applying for excep- tions, another survey was sent. In this second survey, Curtis mistakenly added the Holiday Bazaar Start your holiday shopping here! 2 remaining weekends Nov. 11th, 12th & 13th Nov. 18th, 19th & 20th emails to the “CC” box of the email instead of “BCC,” she said. “So, they all got to see who had indicated they were go- ing to file for an exception,” said Curtis. “So that was my goof. I saw it immediately. I apologize to them. But never was their exception request shown to anybody else.” Not all accepted the apol- ogy, however. On the requirement for weekly testing, the superin- tendent did not feel it was as ineffective as described in the testimonies because asymptomatic people can spread the virus. She also did not feel it was imposed heavy-handedly since she’s employing an honor system. “I thought it was being gracious by saying, ‘You don’t even have to show me evidence that you registered. I’m going to trust you,’” she said. In response to the con- cern that a certain can- cer-causing chemical is used in one of the testing meth- ods, Curtis said the district looked into it. “They asked me to find out about the chemical that was on there and so I con- sulted our nurse who was the one working with Lane County Health and he said the chemical they’re talking about is something that’s used in anything that’s san- itized, including Band Aids,” she said. “So, if people have used Band Aids, they’ve been exposed to that chem- ical.” Following this, though, the district also looked into an alternative method of testing through the Univer- sity of Oregon which used saliva. However, some still took issue with this method as it required them to sub- mit personal information and the saliva could be used by the university for other research purposes. Additionally, the district explored using its on-site testing product BinaxNOW for the unvaccinated staff tests, but the county indicat- ed that it did not fit suitable testing criteria. Because this seemed to be promised as an alternative for the unvac- cinated staff and was sub- sequently removed, further distrust in the superinten- dent was sown. Curtis pointed out that there was pressure from the other side of the debate as well. “There’s a lot of staff members who had become vaccinated whether they wanted to or not because of the mandate, and they don’t think it’s fair that I’m even accepting exceptions,” she said. In developing the addi- tional expectation docu- ment, Curtis said the district had to take into consider- ation others’ perceived safe- ty in the workplace. Oregon Department of Education and Oregon Health Authority has told superintendents that, if al- lowing exceptions, then it’s up to the district to make sure it’s protecting the em- ployees and others from contracting COVID and should require extra safety measures. From meetings with the agencies, SLSD chose some measures which the district had already implemented and others from OHA rec- ommendations such as N95 masking and periodic test- ing. The district chose KN95 masks, which it is required to hand out for free. “So, we do have other people in the schools that are wearing them now that we’re providing them be- cause they wanted more protection,” said Curtis. Overall, Curtis said she was disappointed that the district could not keep ev- erybody. “It saddens me that we made every effort we could to try to ensure that every staff member could meet the mandate and stay with us — and to balance the need to have all of the other staff members who did get vaccinated feel like we were keeping them safe when we were allowing unvaccinated people to be in the building,” she said. “And I’m disap- pointed that at the very end, after five weeks of trying everything we could, that there wasn’t a way to come up with a way that would work.” In all, the district has lost seven employees out of around 455 to the vaccine mandate. The additional safety pre- cautions for unvaccinated staff included in the district’s expectations document are as follows: 1. Wear a KN95 mask, completely covering nose and mouth, at all times in all locations. (Employees may elect to wear a fitted N95 mask at the employee’s ex- pense.) 2. Enroll in either of these two weekly screening pro- grams: COVID-19 Testing in Oregon’s K-12 Schools: Staff Screening program or University of Oregon Saliva Test. 3. Do not remove masks for eating and drinking in public areas of South Lane schools or in other people’s spaces. To further clarify; eating and drinking should occur when alone in a room, or outdoors with 6 feet dis- tance from others. Staff who must remain with children for extended period of time across the day (ex: teachers) are permitted to remove masks briefly to drink water. 4. Maintain at least 3 feet distance to the extent possi- ble with students, staff, par- ents and visitors. 5. To the extent possible, disinfect high-touch sur- faces after use, especially in public areas and other peo- ple’s spaces. 6. In cases where an em- ployee’s position requires very close proximity with students (ex: life skills pro- grams) and at least 3 feet distance is unable to be maintained when possible, other PPE equipment might be required, such as face shields and gowns. (This requirement will be imple- mented on a case-by-case basis dependent on the em- ployee’s assignment.) 7. In the event that the district determines addi- tional measures are neces- sary, a meeting will be held first with you to discuss the situation. 8. In the event that the pandemic circumstanc- es improve, and provided we are allowed by the law and local and state health authorities, some of these measures may be lifted. ill out the form below to have your organization's holiday bazaar included in the bazaar listing in the Cottage Grove Sentinel each Wednesday during the holidays. Cost for this service is $50.00 for a 1x3 advertisement, 50 words or less. Please enclose check or money order if mailing in this listing. Call us at 541-942-3325 for more information. Deadline is NOON, Thursday for the following week’s publication. Must be pre-paid to be accepted. ORGANIZATION: DATE OF EVENT: LOCATION: 17 Local Vendors Fresh Baked Goods Ice Cream & more. TIME: FEATURED ITEMS OR ATTRACTIONS: Shady Oaks Plants & Produce It’s the place to be! 77380 Hwy. 99 S. • 541-942-5004 S entinel C ottage G rove 1498 E. Main Street, STE 104 · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove · 541-942-3325