A6 The BulleTin • Friday, January 15, 2021
“These children have had so much loss and
so much change this year, I think they need
consistency and rhythm. There’s no point in
having a CDL with new teachers.”
Vaccines
Continued from A1
Scam
Continued from A1
Reopening
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Abigail Dollins/AP, Pool
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown visits with National Guard members at the Marion County and Salem Health
COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Wednesday at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem.
the Portland metropolitan area
had more than 60,000 doses of
COVID-19 vaccine on hand as
of Tuesday, even though they’ve
said their stockpiles were
smaller.
The state’s data, for exam-
ple, showed Oregon Health
& Science University had ad-
ministered just 4,000 doses of
the more than 22,000 received,
or less than 20%. A university
spokeswoman said it had since
updated its figures to show that
OHSU has administered 17,642
doses of 32,575 received, or
54%.
Most doses at the major hos-
pitals are spoken for, Baden
said, and will be administered
in coming days.
Before the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration’s Decem-
ber emergency authorization
of the Pfizer-BioNTech vac-
cine, the authority promised
a smooth vaccine rollout. In a
136-page November distribu-
tion plan, the agency said it was
working to increase both staff
and training to make sure pro-
viders reported every vaccine
given within 24 hours. The au-
thority noted it was using an
existing tracking system already
familiar to the majority of vac-
cine providers statewide.
“A trained provider who is
reporting properly should have
virtually no errors in reporting,”
the authority’s plan said.
Baden said some vaccine
providers were new to report-
ing and others had been slow
to report shots given despite
requirements for prompt doc-
umentation. Some have used
mismatching codes to report
their facility name. But Baden
said the reporting was rapidly
getting better. “We are light
years from where we were a
week ago and a week from now
we’ll be a lot closer,” he said.
The data show a significant
backlog not only at some hospi-
tal systems but also several state
agencies.
The Oregon Department of
Corrections, for example, re-
ceived 3,800 Moderna doses
last week but didn’t immedi-
ately report using any, accord-
ing to the data. The department
runs prisons where 733 em-
ployees and 2,908 inmates have
tested positive and 27 inmates
have died.
Baden said he spoke with the
department’s director, Colette
Peters, on Tuesday to inquire
about the plan to ramp up vac-
cinations. He said he was told
the department was accelerat-
ing its administration of shots.
“This week is full-bore to work
through every facility, all of the
employees, as far as they can get
through this week,” Baden said.
“They’re making good prog-
ress.”
A spokeswoman for the De-
partment of Corrections said
1,200 employees, contractors
and inmates will have been vac-
cinated by the end of the week,
an increase of 450 from current
levels. Vaccination clinics are
scheduled next week at nine
prisons.
Even the Oregon Health Au-
thority hasn’t quickly used vac-
cines at its own hospital. As of
Tuesday, the data showed it had
administered 67 of the 1,310
doses on hand after originally
getting an allotment twice that
size. The hospital is vaccinating
patients in Salem this week, an
authority spokesman said, and
will hold make-up days next
week for staff who missed initial
vaccination sessions. Officials
also transferred 600 vaccines
from the Oregon State Hospi-
tal to Salem Health to support
a vaccination clinic at the state
fairgrounds, the spokesman
said.
As a result of its vaccine
tracking, the Oregon Health
Authority has reprioritized
some shipments based on how
initial allocations were used. It
did not send scheduled doses to
Portland Fire & Rescue or Sa-
maritan Health Services, which
runs hospitals in the Willamette
Valley and the coast, an author-
ity spokesman said, because
they had administered doses to
employees and didn’t have more
events planned.
In the meantime, as doses
sit unused, immense demand
awaits. Casey Kulla, a Yamhill
County commissioner, said his
county health department sub-
mitted a request last week for
700 doses for front-line health
care workers, only to be told it
would receive 100. Only after
multiple requests to the health
authority and governor’s office
were the 700 doses approved,
he said.
Kulla said his county of
108,000 people could move
12,000 shots a week if the sup-
ply was there. The state data
show it used 154 of its initial
300 doses, or 49%, as Yamhill
faced what its county health
director described as a “logisti-
cal nightmare” trying to decide
which medical practices or law
enforcement agencies to call in
for its small supply of vaccina-
tions.
“I would love to have a situ-
ation where we can respond to
it like it’s an emergency,” Kulla
said. “When we treat it like the
big rush that I think it should
be, I think we can do these
things.”
struck up a conversation, ac-
cording to documents filed
in Klamath County Circuit
Court that identify Shaun as
Johnson. They’d recently taken
a bid from an asphalt contrac-
tor to repave their driveway
but were told the contractor
couldn’t get started for approx-
imately six months. The man
in their driveway, however,
told them he could get started
right away and the job would
only cost $800.
Johnson started working
and a half-hour later, an un-
identified woman associated
with him confronted the cou-
ple with a bill for $6,000, court
documents state. The woman
said that although $800 was
the cost they’d discussed, they
hadn’t factored in equipment
and labor costs. The cou-
ple gave Johnson a check for
$4,000.
After Johnson left, the Sims
made a troubling discovery.
“The Sims quickly discov-
ered that Shanadoa John-
son did not seal coat their
driveway and instead merely
painted it black,” court docu-
ments state.
In addition to criminal al-
legations, Johnson is the sub-
ject of numerous complaints
with Oregon’s Construction
Contractors Board, including
one from Petersen of La Pine.
Consumers typically settle dis-
putes with contractors through
the board, which licenses con-
tractors, but because Johnson
isn’t licensed, his alleged vic-
tims don’t have that option.
Prolific scammers are often
well-known to the agency’s in-
vestigators, though there’s little
they can do, said Stan Jessup,
board enforcement manager.
“Every year we catch several
of the pavers from out of state
and cite them. However, the
limit of our authority is to fine
the offender,” Jessup said.
An Oregon law last up-
dated in 2007 makes it a crime
to contract without a license,
though it’s a Class A misde-
meanor and is very seldom
prosecuted, Jessup said.
Jessup said legitimate con-
tractors almost never have as-
phalt left over from a job.
“It happens every year here
in Oregon,” Jessup said of pav-
ing scams. “A lot of time the
tipoff is the out-of-state plates,
and the shiny, new equipment.
And they blow into an area
and stay in motels or RV parks
and kind of concentrate on the
rural areas of a state.”
Beyond asking if a contrac-
tor is licensed and bonded,
Jessup recommends looking
up a contractor on the Con-
struction Contractors Board’s
website, taking a picture of the
contractor’s ID card and never
paying cash. Credit card pay-
ments are best because a buyer
can later dispute the charges.
But basically, Jessup said,
never trust someone who
wants to get rid of asphalt.
“If a contractor’s walking
up to you unannounced, that’s
a red flag right there,” Jessup
said.
Petersen’s complaint against
Johnson never wound up in
court, but in August, Johnson
was charged by a Deschutes
County grand jury with de-
frauding Green, and a warrant
issued for his arrest — the
third warrant by an Oregon ju-
risdiction.
Johnson’s whereabouts were
unknown at the time, but a tip
to the Klamath County Sher-
iff’s Office in November re-
sulted in his arrest and deten-
tion in the Cowlitz County jail
in Washington.
Deschutes County officials
requested that he be extradited
to Bend to face charges in
Green’s case but were denied
due to COVID-19 protocols.
Instead, Johnson was released
from custody, and on Tuesday,
he failed to appear at an ar-
raignment in Bend.
A judge issued another war-
rant for Johnson’s arrest, but
his whereabouts are unknown.
e e
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com
Comprehensive distance
learning features more live
instruction from local teach-
ers through video chat. Stu-
dents interact with fellow
students online in breakout
sessions, and they have set
schedules like a traditional
school day.
In Bend-La Pine Schools
Online, students are much
more independent. There
is no schedule, and no live
classroom video chats. There
are local Bend-La Pine staff
who can assist students when
needed, but much of the ac-
tual teaching is self-guided —
or parent-guided, for younger
students — and uses pre-re-
corded videos from nonlocal
teachers and written assign-
ments. Elementary students
in Bend-La Pine Schools
Online can participate in op-
tional enrichment activities,
such as a book club, with lo-
cal teachers and students.
In the new comprehensive
distance learning plan, which
will begin the week of Feb. 8,
students will still have daily
live instruction from local
teachers. But while cohorts of
students will still be sorted by
grade, each virtual classroom
will have a mix of students
from various schools. And
instead of every local teacher
participating, it will only be
those that chose to not teach
in-person, said Superinten-
dent Lora Nordquist.
The number of local
teachers who will teach in
the new distance learning
plan depends entirely on
how many families choose
that plan. If there are more
teachers who want to stay on-
line than the district needs,
then teachers can either take
unpaid leave — which they
would have had to request in
2020 — take medical leave if
there are health concerns, or
resign.
It is unclear how many
new teachers will be hired,
as a survey asking families
which school option they’ll
pick won’t be complete until
Wednesday, Nordquist said.
How do families feel
about this change?
Although some families
might be frustrated that their
child won’t have the same
teacher starting Feb. 8, having
teachers educate students in
the classroom and at home at
the same time is too large a
burden for teachers, and in-
effective for students’ educa-
tion, Nordquist said.
“Parents have asked,
‘Couldn’t we just put a com-
puter or video camera in the
room?’” she said. “That is not
an appropriate instructional
model.”
Jen Sawyer — mother of a
sixth-grader at High Desert
Middle School and second
grader at R.E. Jewell Elemen-
tary — said she felt indiffer-
ent about the new compre-
hensive distance learning
plan. She appreciated the
third option for families, but
was frustrated that Bend-La
Pine leaders didn’t offer it im-
mediately, and didn’t come
up with a plan that gave
teachers more control.
“I feel like they had a lot
of time to figure this out,
to where they could match
teachers with students a lit-
tle bit better,” Sawyer said. “I
don’t feel like (teachers) had a
lot of say.”
Nicole Perullo, who has
a fifth-grader at William E.
Miller Elementary and twin
seventh-graders at Pacific
Crest Middle School, said the
new comprehensive distance
learning plan, which she re-
ferred to as CDL, was inad-
equate.
“These children have had
so much loss and so much
change this year, I think
they need consistency and
rhythm,” she said. “There’s no
point in having a CDL with
new teachers.”
Emily Gibson — a so-
cial-emotional learning spe-
cialist at Silver Rail Elemen-
tary — said she was delighted
when Bend-La Pine restored
the comprehensive distance
learning option. The ideal
situation, allowing each stu-
dent to stay with his or her
teacher, wouldn’t make sense
logistically, she said.
“It’s not what we were envi-
sioning,” Gibson said. “But of
course, when you’re dealing
with an entire school district
of Bend’s size, what we may
be envision may not even be
possible at a district level.”
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
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Petersen is hardly alone.
What he experienced was a
textbook paving scam, one of
the most common ways home-
owners are defrauded in the
U.S., according to the Better
Business Bureau.
The self-styled contractor
who took Petersen for a ride in
the summer of 2019, identified
in court documents as Shana-
doa “Shaun” Wayne Johnson,
is alleged to be responsible for
scams far broader than just
Deschutes County, court re-
cords show. He has other open
cases in Klamath and Lane
counties and is suspected of
crimes in California and Ne-
vada, according to the Klam-
ath County Sheriff’s Office,
which warned residents about
Johnson in August and No-
vember.
In October 2019, Johnson
showed up in the driveway of
Bend woman Janette Green.
According to an indictment
in Deschutes County Circuit
Court, he told her he would
repave her driveway and later
obtained a signature from her
by misrepresenting that he
had finished the job. A month
later, he allegedly made off
with thousands of dollars from
Green, and attempted to de-
fraud another Bend resident,
according to court documents.
After that, Johnson report-
edly headed south to Klam-
ath Falls, where in August, an
86-year-old woman told police
that Johnson began a sealant
job on her driveway, and after
accepting a partial payment
of $800, never returned to fin-
ish it, according to a Klamath
County Sheriff’s Office report.
That same month Klam-
ath Falls couple Gary and Pa-
mela Sims told deputies a man
named Shaun approached
them in their driveway and
— Nicole Perullo, parent with children at William E. Miller
Elementary and Pacific Crest Middle School
QU
S
With months to plan, the
Oregon Health Authority in
November promised accurate
tracking of COVID-19 vaccines
once the highly awaited pro-
gram began. To date, however,
reporting has been spotty, mak-
ing it impossible to tell exactly
how many doses have been ad-
ministered and by whom. The
authority says it’s working to fix
reporting problems that show
an unused vaccine backlog it es-
timates is overstated by tens of
thousands of shots.
The confusion has left state
health officials scrambling to
call hospitals and vaccine pro-
viders across Oregon to de-
termine who has given shots
and prioritize which locations
should get more.
“It frustrates me that I can’t
look at a report and be able to
tell the governor exactly where
every dose is and how it’s been
administered on a day-to-day
basis,” said Dave Baden, the au-
thority’s chief financial officer.
“I really do think we’ve made
some good strides, increasing
the pace of vaccinations and in
cleaning up this data.”
Gov. Kate Brown set a state-
wide goal to administer 12,000
vaccines per day by the end of
this week. Oregon reached that
goal last Friday, when 12,039
shots were administered. The
authority didn’t know that un-
til Thursday, once its reporting
caught up.
Overall, as of Wednesday,
Oregon reported that 129,782
shots had been administered
from a total of 321,225 doses re-
ceived. But the reporting prob-
lems make it difficult to judge
exactly how well Oregon is
performing. Oregon trailed 36
other states for its pace of get-
ting shots into arms, according
to data from the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Pre-
vention.
The importance of a
well-functioning vaccination
program will only grow in
coming weeks as more vaccine
doses are released to states and
Oregon on Jan. 23 expands el-
igibility to teachers and those
older than 65, a group of more
than 850,000 people. To date,
Oregon has only been vacci-
nating front-line health care
workers and long-term care res-
idents.
According to the state’s track-
ing system, released to The Or-
egonian this week in response
to a public records request, the
four largest hospital systems in
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