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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2021)
Sunday • June 6, 2021 • Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $3 SURGE IN RENTALS TIGHTENS MARKET Throughout Bend, the demand is causing price hikes • BUSINESS, C1 St. Charles finances buoyed by federal dollars OREGON | KINDERGARTEN Enrollment dwindles during the pandemic By COuRTnEy VauGHn Pamplin Media Group As Oregon struggled to keep students engaged during distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it also struggled to keep them enrolled. Statewide, public school enrollment dropped nearly 4% from the previous 2019- 20 academic year, state enrollment data show. More than 21,700 students were gone from Oregon’s school attendance rolls as of October 2020. That’s equivalent to the entire Hillsboro, Bend-La Pine or North Clacka- mas school district disappearing. A detailed analysis of enrollment data by Pamplin Media Group shows that kindergar- ten students accounted for more than a quar- ter of the decline, meaning families opted not to enroll their children in public kinder- garten during a school year that kicked off with most Oregon students still in compre- hensive distance learning, rather than seat- time inside a brick-and-mortar school. More than 6,000 fewer kindergartners en- rolled in the state’s public schools during fall 2020 than the prior year, a decline of nearly 15%. Bend-La Pine Schools saw a 13% decrease in kindergarten enrollment in 2020 com- pared to 2019. In Redmond School Dis- trict, the drop in kindergarten enrollment was 20%. Among all students, enrollment dropped by 6.3% in Bend-La Pine Schools and 5.4% in Redmond schools. “We anticipate enrollment will rebound once students resume in-person learning,” the Oregon Department of Education stated in a news release. Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin Kelli Flahavin, an intensive care unit nurse, tends to a COVId-19 patient Friday at St. Charles Bend. The impact of COVID-19 was devastating to Oregon hospitals By SuZannE ROIG • The Bulletin A s Central Oregon nears a 70% vaccination rate for those 16 and older, and the fear of COVID-19 fades, the virus continues to pose a real financial threat to the region’s four hospitals. Patients are filling hospital beds. Demand for personal protective equipment is still high. Elective surgeries are down. Hospital stays are longer and the number of Racial divide Statewide enrollment reports from the Or- egon Department of Education also point to a disparity between white students and students of color. Analysis shows the biggest drop in kindergarten enrollment by race or ethnicity was among white students and Ha- waiian/Pacific Islander students — though the latter group is a small sample size. The state saw nearly 5,000 fewer white kindergart- ners enrolled in fall 2020 than a year earlier; an 18% decline. (Kindergarten enrollment among Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders dropped by 77 students, a decline of nearly 24%.) While the demographic disparity is clear, the reasons for it aren’t. Officials at the state level say more data is needed to assess the reasons why the decline in kindergarten enrollment among white stu- dents was so much higher than all but one of the other six racial and ethnic groups it tracks. The Education Department said it will have a clearer picture come fall 2021. “It is hard to say for sure without having more concrete data and information directly from kindergarten families,” said Jennifer Patterson, assistant superintendent with ODE’s Office of Teaching and Learning. deaths continue to climb. All this affects St. Charles Health System’s financial per- formance and the ability of a hospital to serve the commu- nity, said Jenn Welander, St. Charles Health System’s chief financial officer. One in three Oregon hos- pitals lost money in 2020, ac- cording to the Oregon Associ- ation of Hospitals and Health Systems. Had it not been for the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, St. Charles’ balance sheet would be in the red, Welander said. “If we had not received the government funds, we’d have lost over $30 million,” Welander said. “COVID’s im- pact was truly devastating even with the support we re- ceived from the government. “It was one of the worst St. Charles Health System patient data: 2019-20 an excess revenue over ex- penses of $1.25 million, she said. That’s a $32.6 million decline over 2019. In all, the hospital system received $37.1 million in federal and state COVID-related funds. At St. Charles, the operat- ing margin was 0.1% in 2020, compared to 4.1% in 2019, and that was with the federal funding. The margin is calcu- lated as the difference between operating revenue and total expenses divided by operating revenue. Before the pandemic, the hospital was experiencing a higher volume of revenue from patient care because of the growth in the region, ac- cording to the annual finan- cial report. discharges: 20,611/19,179 average length of stay: 4 days/4.3 days average daily census: 224.3/222.9 Source: St. Charles Health System annual financial report years that St. Charles has faced financially and operationally in over a decade.” The amount of money the hospital earned in patient care declined by $32.4 million, or 4%, in 2020, compared to 2019, she said. At the same time, the hospital saw a 9% in- crease in expenses in 2020 to $862 million because of addi- tional costs for labor and sup- plies, Welander said. The year closed out with See St. Charles / A4 See Kindergarten / A4 Fall firestorms are a cautionary tale in worsening drought throughout Oregon OTIS — Wildfire smoke was thick when Tye and Melynda Small went to bed on Labor Day, but they weren’t too concerned. After all, they live in a part of Oregon where ferns grow from tree trunks and rainfall averages more than 6 feet a year. But just after midnight, a TODAY’S WEATHER neighbor awakened them as towering flames, pushed by gusting winds, bore down. The Smalls and their four children fled, leaving behind 26 pet chickens, two goldfish and a duck named Gerard as wind whipped the blaze into a fiery tornado and trees exploded around them. When it was over, they were Sunny, partly cloudy High 65, Low 35 Page B6 INDEX left homeless by a peril they had never imagined. Only two houses on their street in Otis survived a fire they expected to be tamped out long before it reached their door less than 6 miles from the Pacific. “Nobody ever thought that on the Oregon Coast we would have a fire like this. Here ... it rains. It rains three-quarters Business/Life Classifieds Dear Abby C1-8 B5 C3 Editorial Horoscope Local/State A6 C3 A2-3 of the year,” Melynda Small said. “It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever gone through.” The fire that leveled the ru- ral community of 3,500 people was part of an Oregon wildfire season that destroyed more than 4,000 homes, killed nine people and raged through 1.1 million acres. Lottery Market Recap Mon. Comics See Firestorms / A5 B2 B4 C5-6 Obituaries Puzzles Sports A7 C4 B1-4 Tye and Melynda Small via AP Tye and Melynda Small, with their 5-year-old daughter, Madalyn, stand in front of the ruins of their home in Otis after the Echo Mountain Fire swept through in September. The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper We use recycled newsprint Vol. 117, No. 329, 26 pages, 4 sections SUN/THU By GILLIan FLaCCuS Associated Press U|xaIICGHy02330rzu
