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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2021)
A4 The BulleTin • SaTurday, June 5, 2021 Brown LOCAL BRIEFING Continued from A1 Food truck robbed in Bend Bend Police are searching for the person who robbed a food truck near NE Second Street and NE Greenwood Avenue on Fri- day morning. Police and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 11:45 a.m. robbery, according to a statement from Bend Police Cpl. Scott Dickerson. A suspect has been identified, but not located, Dickerson said. A 26-year-old Bend resident was the robbery victim and was not injured, Dickerson said. Police described the incident as a strongarm robbery, which usually means a weapon wasn’t in- volved. Nearby schools were on a brief lockout, meaning exterior doors were locked, while the surrounding area was searched. — Bulletin staff report Schools Continued from A1 GOP: More money Brown originally proposed $9.1 billion in her 2021-23 budget, which she unveiled Dec. 1, a slight increase from $9 billion in the current two- year cycle that ends June 30. She proposed to tap $200 mil- lion from the state’s education reserve, which lawmakers had already withdrawn $400 mil- lion from last year to balance the budget during the corona- virus pandemic. But since then, the overall budget picture has improved because of increased projec- tions of tax collections from two subsequent economic and revenue forecasts, some sav- ings from budget cuts, and $2.6 billion in federal aid from President Joe Biden’s pandemic recovery plan. (Half of that aid will be paid next year.) Seven Republican repre- sentatives, including Minority Leader Christine Drazan of Canby, said the aid budget should reflect the $9.6 bil- lion advocated by the Oregon School Boards Association. “As we ask our schools to bring kids back to have full in-person learning five days a week, they are going to be bombarded with unknowns,” Drazan said. “The need for them to have the resources necessary to create an envi- ronment where these kids can be successful cannot be over- stated.” Rep. Greg Smith, a Repub- lican from Heppner who sits on the budget committee, said boosting the amount would be a true bipartisan gesture in an often-fractured House. The May 14 vote of the full budget committee was 21-1. Sen. Chuck Thomsen, R-Hood River, was the lone dissenter, and also opposed it May 25 when it came up in the full Senate. One Republican was excused from the committee vote. The motion to send the bud- get back to committee failed with two Democrats — Mark Meek of Oregon City and Marty Wilde of Eugene — joining 20 Republicans. Earlier in the day, Republi- cans attempted but failed on a procedural motion to put to a vote a separate bill committing Oregon’s 197 school districts to reopen fully for the 2021-22 academic year that starts in a few months. Democrats defend amount Rep. Susan McLain, D-For- Gov. Kate Brown, shown in 2018, reiter- ated plans to give away $1 million to a vac- cinated Orego- nian, along with $10,000 to a vaccinated per- son in each of the 36 counties. Scholarships worth $100,000 are also being offered to lucky vaccinated youth. est Grove, said overall educa- tion spending in the new bud- get cycle is projected at 51% of the tax-supported general fund and lottery proceeds, and the state school fund accounts for 32.4%. “We are creating record in- vestments in public schools this year,” McLain, co-leader of the education budget subcom- mittee, said. Rep. Dan Rayfield, a Dem- ocrat from Corvallis and co- leader of the Legislature’s joint budget panel, said about $6 billion of a projected $28 bil- lion in general fund and lottery spending for the next two years is one-time money. He said he and McLain worked for four months to come up with the right figure for school aid. “It is our job as a Legislature to find out what is the Goldi- locks porridge in our budget that meets the needs of our children, but also at the same time, is a sustainable budget that we can continue to operate on,” Rayfield said. Rep. Andrea Valderrama, D-Portland, leads the David Douglas School Board and is the newest member of the Legislature, having taken her District 47 seat on April 1 after her predecessor resigned under pressure. “As a school board chair, I will be doing everything that I can to hold our district ac- countable to equitable spend- ing and meaningful engage- ment of communities of color,” Valderrama, one of nine House members of color and 31 women, said. Rep. Paul Evans, D-Mon- mouth, voted for the bill. But he said lawmakers should be working toward paying for public schools at the level rec- ommended by the Quality Ed- ucation Model, which takes into account the staffing and services that students should get. The process was initiated more than two decades ago by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, who also won voter approval of a 2000 constitutional amend- ment that requires lawmakers to specify why Oregon does not meet that goal. (Lawmak- ers never have met it.) Evans said if the state bud- get were to pay fully for that model, lawmakers should be approving $10 billion for the next two years. “We will continue to fight over nickels and dimes to get the state school fund a little higher,” Evans said. “But it is the wrong fight.” e e pwong@pamplinmedia.com Find it all online bendbulletin.com T RINITY E PISCOPAL C HURCH Love God, Love Your Neighbor, Love Yourself Worship online @ trinitybend.org Meal schedule @ familykitchen.org Exceptions would be air- ports, public transit and health care settings that follow federal agency guidelines. • End requirements for in- dividuals to show vaccination verification in public venues and businesses. • Allow K-12 students to attend school in-person, full time, five days per week. K-12 guidance is being re- vised to support schools in safely delivering in-person instruction throughout the school day. Current health and safety standards, including in- door-mask requirements, will remain in place in workplaces, schools and child care settings. Colleges and universities can make their own decisions on protocols after considering guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention. Brown said the move would not mean the pandemic was over in Oregon. She will reex- amine whether or not to lift her emergency order that gave her a wide latitude on public health decisions. “The pandemic will not be over,” Brown said. To try to increase the vac- cination rate toward the goal, many pharmacies will extend hours to reach out to more people who want shots. “Some people are not vac- cine resistant, but vaccine in- convenienced,” Allen said. Brown also reiterated plans to give away $1 mil- lion to a vaccinated Orego- nian, along with $10,000 to a vaccinated person in each of the 36 counties. Scholarships EO Media file worth $100,000 are also being offered to lucky vaccinated youth. Brown and OHA officials said it was time to push past the current levels of inocula- tion as medical evidence and state statistics show the impact of the virus has separated res- idents into two groups with very different likely futures. Those with vaccination are almost completely free of in- fections, severe illness and death. But the pandemic is still “a shadow” across the state for those who are not inocu- lated. OHA said nine out of 10 deaths are currently among people who have no record of vaccination. Dr. Louis D’Avignon, a pul- monary critical care physician with Summit Health and an intensive care staff physician at St. Charles Bend, spoke at the press event via Zoom. D’Vignon said early in the pandemic, the most severe cases were the elderly and sick. After the state’s big push to vaccinate the most vulnerable populations, D’Avignon said it was sadly no longer uncom- mon to find very sick patients who are relatively young and fit. The common strand among the sickest and dead: They were unvaccinated. Earlier in the pandemic, the problem was not enough vac- cine for those who needed and wanted the shots. Today, the patients are in- creasingly unvaccinated by choice. “This is essentially a pre- ventable disease for almost ev- eryone,” D’Avignon said. Since March, 328 of the 346 COVID-19 cases at St. Charles involved unvaccinated patients. Just one of the 98 COVID-19 deaths in the pe- riod had been vaccinated. Children, immunocompro- mised and those who have not been able to get vaccinated must still be considered when communities decide what steps to take. “There are still Oregonians who need to take extra pre- cautions to feel and stay safe,” Brown said. Those battling cancer, im- munocompromised Orego- nians and organ donors are among those still needing pro- tection, to name a few. There are also many Oregon kids who are not yet eligible for a vaccine. “So, it will remain incredi- bly important for Oregonians to continue making smart choices,” Brown said. OHA will continue to mon- itor the global pandemic and provide assistance and re- sources, but will increasingly advise local officials on mea- sures to take. OHA and CDC are ex- pected to issue more guidance in coming days as the state nears the 70% goal. e e gwarner@eomediagroup.com
