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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2016)
State Blue Mountain Eagle Legislature could reimburse schools for lead testing By Paris Achen Capital Bureau Oregon public schools could be reimbursed for the cost of testing for lead in campus drinking water, un- der a proposal lawmakers will consider Sept. 23. The proposal sets up a fund administered by the Oregon Department of Edu- cation. School districts could submit invoices to request reimbursement for costs as- sociated with lead testing be- tween March and December of this year. The Legislative Fiscal Ofice has recommended that the Emergency Board approve the $5 million as a placeholder until state edu- cation oficials gain a better sense of how much school districts will request for re- imbursement. The education depart- ment could submit a revised inancial request to the emer- gency board in December, if requests exceed $5 million, said Doug Wilson, a legisla- tive iscal analyst. “It’s really a signal to districts that we are putting money aside for lead test- ing,” Wilson said of the rec- ommendation. The Oregon Association of School Business Oficials conducted a survey of school districts this summer to try to estimate the cost of testing. About 100 districts, repre- senting about half of the state student population, respond- ed. The $5 million igure is roughly based on those dis- tricts’ responses, Wilson said. That amount equates to about $35 for each lab test, including testing and a small amount to defray the cost of collection, he said. The amount doesn’t account for any expenses associated with mitigation of lead contamina- tion. Some larger school dis- tricts such as Portland and Beaverton used contractors to take water samples, which drove up the cost of testing, Wilson said. Lawmakers pledged to provide some kind of inan- cial assistance to districts after the Oregon Health Au- thority and the education de- partment last summer asked districts to test for lead in school water supplies. The agencies recommended that schools identify sources of lead, stop access, communi- cate results to staff, students, parents and the community and mitigate and repair the problem. The request for testing followed widespread media coverage of a scandal in Port- land Public Schools over lead in drinking water that went unreported. In August, the state Board of Education — at the behest of Gov. Kate Brown — ap- proved a rule that requires school districts to submit a plan for testing for lead in water and other toxins in school environments and to report any results to the pub- lic, but the rule doesn’t re- quire actual testing. State agencies, including the education department and the Oregon Health Authority, have no authority to force school districts to test for lead in water, but that could change next year. Lawmak- ers are considering legisla- tion during the 2017 session that would require districts to test for lead in water and pos- sibly other toxins, said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Port- land. Dembrow and Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Port- land, spearheaded legislation in 2015 that required districts to test for radon. “At that time, we focused on radon because to be hon- est, we assumed there was testing already happening for lead and other things, but radon seemed like something people were just beginning to become familiar with.” “As we come to a better understanding of the multiple toxins in schools, we need to expand that,” he added. New York recently enact- ed a law requiring schools to test for lead by the end of October, report results to the public and develop a plan for reducing exposure to the toxin, the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Ofice reported. Wednesday, September 21, 2016 Oracle settles Cover Oregon lawsuit for $100 million By Nick Budnick and Paris Achen Capital Bureau The state of Oregon and Oracle, the vendor on the $300 million Cover Oregon website debacle, have set- tled their wide-ranging legal dispute for more than $100 million in goods, services and cash. Oracle will supply funds, software and services to the state to settle a case in which Oregon had accused the Red- wood City, Calif., software gi- ant of fraud and racketeering on the state’s one-stop-shop- ping health insurance website project that never worked as planned. The state had been asking for roughly $6 billion. “Today’s settlement agree- ment ends years of turmoil and taxpayer expense related to a troubled health care ex- change program I dissolved in March 2015,” Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement. The agreement, an- nounced early Thursday by Brown at OMSI, includes only $35 million in actual cash. Of that, $25 million will go to legal costs. The other $10 million will go toward science, technolo- gy, engineering and math education in public schools, to be branded as “Oracle STEM Education Grants.” The state’s $105 million valuation of the settlement Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group From left, Deputy General Counsel Misha Isaak, Gov. Kate Brown, and state Chief Information Officer Alex Petitt answer questions at OMSI in Portland Thursday after Brown announced a more than $100 million settlement with Oracle Thursday over the failed Cover Oregon website. also includes $60 million in free customer service sup- port for yet-to-be-obtained Oracle software. State officials were ex- pected to notify the federal government of the settle- ment later Thursday morn- ing, Brown said. Brown de- clined to answer a question about whether the state will be required to give any of the settlement money to the federal government. “We received a very lim- ited amount of cash as you will see; the cash is $35 million,” Brown responded. “These settlements are very challenging to resolve, and all of the parties had to do some give and take in order to resolve the matter.” The federal government contributed $305 million C OUNTY H A9 for Cover Oregon. But fed- eral officials may find it hard to recoup any part of the settlement’s ostensible value. Not a penny of the amount will go to repay the state for the $240 million it paid Oracle in connection with the project, or reim- burse the state for any of the related damages cited in the state’s lawsuit against Oracle. Kristen Grainger, a spokeswoman for Brown, said the settlement was “carefully” and “creative- ly” constructed to let Or- egon keep as much of it as possible, hopefully the whole amount. “We are hopeful that (the federal government) will see that the needs of consumers are met,” she said. C ORNERSTONE S URVEYING , I NC . om e S INCE 1995 Jack Watson 541-575-1813 233 S Canyon Blvd. John Day cornerstonesurvey@centurytel.net Improvements Improvements Remodeling your bathroom? Trust Andy’s Plumbing to ensure everything is done quickly and efficiently. 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