LOCAL & STATE
THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2020
BUDGET
Continued from Page 1A
Rather than having to make
17% cuts, that amount was
reduced to 8%.
Witty said the Legislature is
expected to meet on June 15 to
begin considering how to deal
with the expected decline in
state revenue as a result of the
coronavirus pandemic.
“We won’t know for a while
exactly what the revenue pack-
age is going to be,” he told the
Board.
Witty reminded the group
that lawmakers do have
access to $1.7 billion through
the Education Stability Fund
and the Rainy Day Fund to
help backfi ll some of the lost
revenue.
He recalled, however, that
during the recession about a
decade ago, lawmakers were
quick to use the money in the
fi rst year of the biennium and
came to regret that decision
during the second year. For
that reason, Witty said he
expects the legislators to take
a more cautious approach this
time.
He again pointed to the solid
fi nancial ground the Baker
School District is standing
on thanks to entrepreneurial
endeavors the school board
and administrators began
about a decade ago, such as
development of the Baker Web
Academy, Baker Technical
Institute, contracting services
to others districts and aggres-
sively seeking grants.
The budget approved Tues-
day night totals $68,073,037,
with a general fund budget of
$53,446,122.
Budget Board members
posed several questions to
District administrators and
school board members during
the session. Wes Price asked
which items were most highly
requested by staff and parents
in planning sessions before the
budget was fi nalized.
Witty said funding for
mental health services and
parental involvement were top
priorities.
“That requires staffi ng,” he
said. “If the Student Invest-
ment Account had been fully
funded, staff would have been
hired.”
But adding positions might
require reducing them later on
if the economy doesn’t recover
as quickly as hoped, Witty
said. Capital improvements, on
the other hand, are one-time
expenses.
“Once you make a personnel
expenditure ... and you have to
(reduce the workforce) it’s not
particularly good on morale,”
Witty said.
TESTING
Continued from Page 3A
And if somebody isn’t sick, they
won’t have viral RNA in their nose,
so there won’t be any genes to am-
plify. That means false positives are
extremely rare.
But false negatives are a different
story.
In a health care setting, a lot
can increase the chances of a false
negative: how the person is tested,
how the sample is stored, how it’s
shipped, how long it takes for the
sample to be processed, and even
when a person is tested during the
course of their illness.
“These tests should be done by
labs with expertise,” Akkari said.
Akkari’s hospital system, like
many others, has avoided tests run
by major corporations like LabCorps
and Quest. Instead many larger
hospitals and health systems have
created RT-PCR tests they con-
trol from start to fi nish. But some
potential errors can’t be avoided.
And they start the second a swab is
stuck several inches up a person’s
nose.
How are we gathering
samples?
RT-PCR tests have one big prob-
lem, Jeanne said: “You can have the
virus, but if you don’t get enough of
it in the sample, it won’t show up on
the tests.”
The way samples are taken can
have a big impact on that. Think
back to a time you jumped into a
pool and got water up your nose.
Now imagine a swab reaching up
into that same, painful place. You
might fl inch or draw back before
there’s enough sample of your mu-
cus on the swab.
And then there are health care
workers, who might be hesitant to
stick a swab far enough up some-
one’s nose to get a proper result.
“It’s not just about the lab run-
ning the test, it’s about the person
who’s performing it, how long they
swab for, what techniques they
have. Are they swabbing both sides
of the nose?” Jeanne said.
For most of March and April,
testing swabs were in short supply.
Some hospitals reported using a na-
sal wash for the sample, increasing
the chance of a false negative.
Research shows that samples
collected with a certain type of deep-
reaching swabs, called “nasopharyn-
geal swabs,” give the most accurate
test results. Specimens collected
with combined front-of-the-nose and
throat swabs or nasal washes are
considered less effective.
OHA was not able to collect data
on how samples for tests were
The District does still plan
to add one full-time behavioral
specialist to help address the
issues of concern at the lower
grade levels, he added.
Price next asked which
items were funded that were
not seen as high priority needs
by parents and community
members.
Michelle Glover, the
District’s business manager,
pointed to the unexpected need
to upgrade sanitation practices
and to provide personal protec-
tive equipment throughout the
district, which is estimated to
cost $270,000.
That expense includes the
addition of one full-time janitor,
who will divide time between
Baker Middle School and South
Baker Intermediate School,
with some time also dedicated
to the North Baker building,
Witty said.
Between 20% and 25% of
the District’s staff falls into the
category of those with health
concerns that could put them at
risk of COVID-19 complications,
he said.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity, the District’s liability insur-
ance provider and the worker’s
compensation insurance
program all expect the District
to provide a safe environment
for the staff and students, Witty
said.
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
Included in the sanitation
costs are increased use of the
Vitol Oxide product the District
has used for the past three
years to disinfect buildings and
buses. The maintenance staff
will keep an eye on minimizing
the labor involved, Witty said.
The District also plans to install
automated faucets and soap
and towel dispensers in the
restrooms.
Equipment to routinely
test temperatures of staff and
students daily also will be
purchased for use in classrooms
and on buses. Parents will be
informed that if their students
come to school with an elevated
temperature they will be re-
quired to take them home.
“That will protect the staff
and provide a quality, healthy
environment for them and for
other kids,” Witty said.
The superintendent took the
Board through a list of items
included in a 5-year facility plan
and pointed out projects that
have been put off until later
because of the adjusted revenue
forecast. Grant funding will
help accomplish some of those
projects, however.
Witty announced Tuesday
that since the last Budget
Board meeting, the District had
been awarded a $2.3 million
seismic rehabilitation grant
to make repairs to the Baker
likely to get false negatives. That’s
because of a weird fl uke in how the
new coronavirus behaves.
As COVID-19 progresses, the
coronavirus takes up residence in
different places in your body, Akkari
explained. And as the virus moves
through your body, it’s less likely to
be detected by a standard nasopha-
ryngeal swab, because it’s just not
there anymore.
According to a scientifi c literature
review, an RT-PCR test for CO-
VID-19 is at its most accurate about
three days after symptoms appear,
Oregon Health & Science University Photo/Kristyna Wentz-Graff with a false negative rate of about
Medical assistant Jillian Zalunardo works with a patient being tested 22%.The false negative rate climbs
for COVID-19 at the OHSU drive-thru testing site in Hillsboro.
slowly as the disease progresses. By
the time patients are feeling very
ill, 16 days after symptoms start, as
taken, Jeanne said, so it’s unclear
ally happened. That information
many as 66% of swabs come back
how widespread sampling prob-
hasn’t been passed on to public
lems were, or how that could have
health departments like his. Health with false negatives.
The Oregon Health Authority
impacted our overall test count.
care workers across the country
have voiced concerns about how test is continually updating its testing
Was the sample handled
guidelines. Patients with mild symp-
samples are shipped. But lacking
properly?
toms can now get tested. Jeanne
hard data, it’s just one more thing
Once a sample is taken, more
said that’s caused the number of
that could go wrong.
potential problems arise. Until mid-
tests conducted to climb rapidly.
Once the samples arrive at the
April, many Oregonians reported
But most people with a sniffl e,
lab, they need to be stored — again,
waiting over a week to learn the
cough or headache wait it out and see
at temperatures well below freez-
results of their COVID-19 tests. It
if they get better — they don’t want
ing. At one point, Quest reported a
was an early sign that those results backlog of 160,000 tests, received
to seem like hypochondriacs and rush
might not be accurate.
straight to their doctor’s offi ce. But
and waiting to be tested.
Most of the delayed tests were
the sooner people get tested, the more
“If Quest and LabCorps [had]
shipped to far-away laboratories or a big backlog — and they did — I
accurate their test results will be.
were conducted by commercial labs would wonder if they were freezing
Rapid tests: fairly new, dropped
like Quest Diagnostics, which has
samples or how,” Jeanne said.
by some clinics
been processing tests from around
And then there’s the process of
There’s one way to avoid false neg-
the country.
extracting the RNA from the virus
atives produced by poorly handled
A long delay shouldn’t necessarily and purifying it. Once RNA is
impact the accuracy of a test, but
purifi ed it’s much more stable. But samples: Collect the sample and do
the test right away on-site. That’s
that all depends on how the sample the chemicals to extract RNA are
is handled, Akkari said.
in short supply, contributing to the why most hospitals with laboratories
“I don’t know what most com-
testing shortages, said Ben Dalziel, run their RT-PCR tests in-house.
But many hospitals and doctor’s of-
mercial labs are doing, but here at
an epidemiologist at Oregon State
fi ces don’t have in-house laboratories.
Legacy, we recommend that a test
University. He is involved in a sur-
be run, at most, 72 hours after it
vey that aims to track the spread of And that’s led to an increased call
for rapid tests, which don’t require
was collected,” Akkari said. And it
COVID-19 in Corvallis.
needs to be kept at near-freezing
If a lab doesn’t have the supplies a lab and can be completed before a
checkup is even fi nished. The federal
temperatures until then. That’s
to extract RNA, the samples could
government only just sent Oregon
because viral RNA is extremely
have been slowly degrading.
fragile.
In recent weeks, commercial labs the supplies needed to run these
tests.
“More than fragile, actually, and
seem to have caught up with the
The Trump administration touted
much more fragile than DNA,” she fl ood of COVID-19 tests coming in.
the coronavirus rapid tests manufac-
said. “The whole world is full of
Jeanne said turnarounds are back
tured by Abbott. Its machines and
these RNases” — special molecules to what he considers a reasonable
kits were sent to health departments
that break up RNA, sort of like a
amount of time: about four days.
around the country. In Oregon, those
cleaning service in your cells.
tests are being deployed to rural
Jeanne said that if a viral sample Who is getting tested, and
areas without labs close by or are
is going to take more than 72 hours when?
Until recently, testing capacity
being used in emerging COVID-19
to be tested, it should be frozen
for COVID-19 was very limited
hotspots. Deploying rapid tests
at 70 degrees below zero Celsius.
where they’re needed is a key part of
That’s colder than the average tem- in Oregon. Even as that capacity
increased, strict criteria kept the
Oregon’s plan to reopen.
perature during sunless Antarctic
number of people who qualifi ed for
COVID-19 rapid tests are fairly
winters.
tests low.
new, and they haven’t been held up
But given the myriad ways RT-
Very few people with mild or mod- to the same standard of performance
PCR specimens are shipped to com-
mercial labs (ideally, by courier, but erate symptoms were getting tested. that tests for other diseases have.
And many people were told to stay Abbott claims that the false negative
occasionally by mail), Jeanne said
it’s entirely possible samples aren’t home and ask for a test again if they rate for their ID NOW rapid test is as
low as .02%.
being frozen before they’re shipped, got sicker. Most tests were going
to the sickest patients, and that’s a
But the Cleveland Clinic conducted
or they thaw in-transit.
a study that found that the tests
But he doesn’t know if that actu- problem, because they’re the most
One solution for oxygen at home, away, and for travel
Introducing the INOGEN ONE – It’s oxygen therapy on your terms
No more tanks to refi ll. No more deliveries. No more hassles with travel.
The INOGEN ONE portable oxygen concentrator is designed to provide
unparalleled freedom for oxygen therapy users. It’s small, lightweight,
clinically proven for stationary and portable use, during the day and at night,
and can go virtually anywhere — even on most airlines.
Inogen accepts Medicare and many private insurances!
Reclaim Your Freedom And
Independence NOW!
Tax Problems: RESOLVED
Tax Levies & Liens Release
Resolve Back Taxes
Wage Garnishment Release
Payroll Tax Negotiation
Stop Penalties and Interest
Tax Preparation &
Bookkeeping Services
Tax Debt Negotiation &
Settlement
ACCREDITED
BUSINESS
®
A+
Rating
844-945-2056
Call Inogen Today To
Request Your FREE Info Kit
© 2020 Inogen, Inc.
All rights reserved.
MKT-P0108
ment efforts prosper.
Mike Rudi, a member of
the Budget Board who also
serves on the Sports Complex
Board, had high praise for Buell
Gonzales Jr., who had worked
to bring a district all-star
tournament to Baker City this
summer among other projects.
“We would have had a signifi-
cant increase in revenue that
we would have turned around
and put back into the budget,
not only for the Sports Complex,
but for other things,” Rudi said.
“The potential is there,” he
said. “It’s sad we had to get the
coronavirus in the first year.”
Witty said that because
the future of school sports is
unknown at this time, Gonzales
will spend “a good chunk of his
time” as dean of students at
Brooklyn Primary School, shar-
ing the role with Angela Lattin
in the coming year.
Budget hearing
The public will have one
more chance to comment on
the budget before it is adopted
by the Board. A budget hear-
ing is scheduled at 5:45 p.m.
Thursday, June 18, just prior to
the monthly Board meeting.
More information and a
copy of the budget is available
online at www.5j.org or by
calling the District Offi ce at
541-524-2260.
could miss up to 48% of infections.
It also found issues with the ac-
curacy of other COVID-19 rapid
tests. Although Abbott says the false
negatives were due to user error, the
Cleveland Clinic and others have
stopped using their tests.
The high false negative rates with
rapid tests for other, more established
diseases, has further fueled skepti-
cism. The Food and Drug Administra-
tion has offi cially cautioned the public
about the accuracy of Abbott’s tests
for COVID-19 and is investigating
further.
The bottom line
Combined, all these factors can
lead to a high number of false nega-
tives that undermine the accuracy of
COVID-19 testing. But as companies,
clinicians and hospitals enter the
pandemic’s third month, some ac-
curacy issues have resolved. The rise
of in-house and close-to-home tests is
an example.
“The in-state testing from clinical
hospital labs tends to be very fast,”
Jeanne said. “They’re turning around
within a day.”
Because turnaround times can’t
be guaranteed by commercial labs,
which process tests from across the
country, OHA isn’t including them
in their testing goals: Good contact
tracing relies on fast test results.
It’s the number of tests that can be
processed in-state that really mat-
ters. Before Oregon could reopen, the
Oregon Health Authority wanted to
be able to process at least 15,000 tests
in-state per week. That goal has been
reached.
As Oregon continues to reopen,
models will depend on the accuracy
and availability of tests going for-
ward. Those models are supposed to
warn us before an outbreak becomes
uncontrollable.
But those models also depend
on the accuracy of Oregon’s past
tests. As the coronavirus pandemic
progressed in Oregon, OHA deployed
a common strategy: retroactively
updating Oregon’s models to make
future projections more accurate.
In a few more months, once all
the death certifi cates have been
processed, the OHA’s Center for
Health Statistics may start to review
the deaths in Oregon from the fi rst
quarter of this year. If they do, they’ll
look for patients who died with
symptoms similar to those caused by
COVID-19. Maybe some questions
will be answered.
“That would be a good project for
our team to take on,” said Jennifer
Woodward, the center’s state regis-
trar. “But not right now.”
Like so many other things during
this pandemic, the data just isn’t
there yet.
Prepare for unexpected
power outages with a
Generac home standby
generator
There are many ways we can tackle
IRS or State tax relief together:
Call us now for your FREE tax consultation & evaluation:
1-855-839-0752
Middle School building begin-
ning in the summer of 2021-22.
Window replacements, roof
work and concrete repair are
some of the items that have
been delayed.
Witty said the District has
also heard concerns about the
District’s upkeep of its buildings
and grounds.
“I do believe that in the last
2fi to 3 years we have done a
good job,” Witty said. “There is
a ton of deferred maintenance
here.”
Some roofs and heating
systems in the District’s older
school buildings will need to
be replaced at some point, for
example, he said.
The District also hears com-
plaints about the number of ad-
ministrators on the payroll, an
issue Witty says he has heard
complaints about throughout
his career.
The superintendent noted
that there is a need for more
administrators in the modern
school environment because of
the changes in education over
the years.
“The regulations and over-
sight have changed dramatical-
ly since I first started in 1986,”
he said.
Just last spring, the District
hired a full-time athletic direc-
tor in the hope of helping the
community’s economic develop-
Anthem offers a money-back guarantee designed to help you avoid wasting money on ineffective tax services.
We will gather as much information from you as necessary and work with tax authorities to give you the best
chance of reducing your tax debt. If for any reason that does not work out, and the government notifies us they
refuse to reduce your overall tax liability or monthly payments by any amount, we will gladly refund you the fees
you paid for our services in trying to reduce that debt. Money Back Guarantee does not apply to Bookkeeping
and Tax Preparation Services.
SCHEDULE YOUR FREE IN-HOME
ASSESSMENT TODAY!
877-557-1912
FREE
7-Year Extended Warranty*
A $695 Value!
Off er valid March 16, 2020 - June 30, 2020
Special Financing Available
Subject to Credit Approval
*Terms & Conditions Apply