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A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2020
washing and sanitizing pro-
tocols and not allowing stu-
dents or staff to be at school
if they are displaying symp-
toms of COVID-19. The
school district is adding two
new school nurses to the
two it already has on staff,
and will make whatever
additional accommodations
are needed for students with
medical conditions that put
them at higher risk of com-
plications from COVID-19.
“Students’ safety, secu-
rity and health, all of that
has always been at the fore-
front for us,” she said.
At Umatilla School Dis-
trict, Superintendent Heidi
Sipe created a slideshow
and video showing a first
draft of the district’s plan
for fall, and asked parents
and students to give feed-
back on the plan through a
survey sent out to parents
and available on the dis-
trict’s Facebook page.
In the video, Sipe said
the district plans to pres-
ent a mixture of online and
on-site opportunities for stu-
dents. Students can choose
to attend school online only
for their health, while stu-
dents who wish to attend
in person will be kept in a
“cohort” with the same stu-
dents and teacher all day on
Monday through Thursday.
On Fridays, students who
need help catching up will
meet with their teacher in
person while students who
are passing their classes will
be learning online.
In elementary school,
the students’ main teacher
will handle PE, music and
other special classes in their
own classrooms. In the sec-
ondary grade levels, stu-
dents will be kept in one
“homeroom” classroom all
day with their cohort for
an entire quarter, with that
classroom’s teacher han-
dling some subjects in per-
son while students will
watch a livestream of other
teachers’ lectures for other
subjects.
“It’s important to recog-
nize this is our draft plan,”
Sipe said. “That means it’s
not final yet. These are our
first ideas into the guidance
that was released so that we
can have school in the fall.”
when she goes out. She said
she ordered a bunch for her-
self and her family mem-
bers off of Etsy, a website
for people to sell handmade
items.
The mask business began
flourishing on the site before
major clothing manufactur-
ers started to catch up with
demand. Vogue reported that
people searched for masks
more than two million times
on Etsy between April 2-4.
Hickam said not every-
one appreciates her walk-
ing advertisement for the
president.
“I get a lot of grief some-
times, but I just ask people if
they cashed their (stimulus)
check, and that usually shuts
them up,” she said.
Wearing a mask can be
uncomfortable, but the fre-
quent mask-wearers inter-
viewed for the article said
getting one that fits well
helps significantly, as well
as finding straps or ties
that don’t rub on the ears.
Hickam said she likes wear-
ing the extenders that allow
people to hook their masks
farther back on their head
instead of behind their ears.
Some recommended get-
ting masks with a flexible
metal nose piece that can
mold the top of the mask
securely to the wearer’s nose
and cheeks, particularly for
people who wear glasses and
have trouble with them fog-
ging up. Messenger said she
has found that cleaning her
glasses multiple times a day
and drying them on a soft
cloth not washed with fabric
softener also tones down the
fogging problem.
Bethany Adair of Herm-
iston said she at first tried to
borrow a cloth mask from
her husband, a doctor, but
she found that it didn’t fit
well. She ended up getting a
couple more her size from a
friend who sews.
She said it’s important
not to “mask shame” peo-
ple who could be not wear-
ing one for a mental or phys-
ical health reason, but also
said that for people who find
them uncomfortable, it does
seem to get easier as time
goes on.
“I’ve gotten a little more
comfortable with it,” she
said.
She said she hasn’t had
her children wear one yet,
since they have mostly
stayed home, but that’s a
discussion their family will
have to have when they
return to places like church.
“I’ll probably try and find
some fun patterns for the
kids, or maybe let them dec-
orate their own,” she said.
Schools :
Continued from Page A1
Some districts may be
able to leverage gyms,
lunch rooms and other
large spaces to accommo-
date all students under the
6-foot rule, for example,
while others may need to
rotate half the students into
the building at a time while
the other half participate
in online schooling for the
day. Districts will also need
to make sure students aren’t
mixing with other cohorts in
restrooms, hallways, play-
grounds and other shared
spaces.
On a phone call with
Oregon journalists, Ore-
gon Department of Educa-
tion Director Colt Gill said
if school districts do have
a hybrid program of online
and in-person learning next
year, the distance learning
will be held to “higher level
of expectation” than they
have been in the spring,
including actual interaction
with teachers on those days
they’re not physically in the
classroom.
“With this level of local
flexibility, there is an equal
level of local responsibil-
ity,” he said.
He said in the event of
an outbreak at a school,
districts must be prepared
to temporarily switch an
entire building or classroom
to distance learning while
everyone who may have
been exposed is quarantined
at home.
Hermiston voters passed
a bond in 2019 to add on
to Hermiston High School,
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan, File
Families stand and take pictures of their graduates during Hermiston High School’s commencement ceremony at the high
school on Thursday, June 4, 2020. The measures taken for graduation are a preview of social distancing schools will be required
to practice in the fall.
replace Rocky Heights
Elementary School with
a larger school and add a
sixth elementary school to
the district. During the cam-
paign, the district’s website
stated the Facilities Plan-
ning Committee estimated
that the high school and
elementary schools would
“exceed capacity” by the
2020-21 school year. Those
projects are currently in the
design phase, but won’t be
built in time for the upcom-
ing school year.
Mooney said last week
that Hermiston has been
able to keep its class sizes
“manageable,”
however,
which will help in follow-
ing the state’s guidelines in
the fall.
In addition to tackling
the problem of sufficient
physical distancing for each
student and teacher, districts
will also be challenged by
the requirement to keep stu-
dents together in a single
group, or cohort, all day to
try and limit the exposure
that would happen if a stu-
dent were to come to school
carrying COVID-19.
Mooney said at the ele-
mentary school that is eas-
ier to accomplish, as stu-
dents mostly stay together
in one group all day any-
way, but high school and
middle school students usu-
ally mix with different stu-
dents in different classes.
“There will be different
needs for different levels,
for sure,” she said.
Mooney said the district
will also follow hygiene
standards set by the state,
including rigorous hand
Masks:
Continued from Page A1
major corporations have
since gotten on board. Sport-
ing goods brands like Adidas
and Under Armour are sell-
ing masks designed for exer-
cise. Department stores like
Nordstrom are selling fash-
ionable masks online. Dis-
ney is offering Star Wars
masks.
Taunji Knudsen of Herm-
iston is a big Los Ange-
les Rams fan, so her favor-
ite mask is a dark blue one
with a sparkly Rams logo.
She said the team sells offi-
cial masks now, as do all the
NFL teams, but she doesn’t
like the new Rams logo so
she ordered a homemade
one from a fan she met in an
online forum.
She said she wears one
every time she is in public
to protect herself, since she
has asthma, and to protect
others.
“As the temperature gets
warmer it makes it a little
more difficult, but the ben-
efit outweighs the risk,” she
said. “(Oregon) just saw
our largest one-day total
(of COVID-19) earlier this
week, so now is not the time
to be complacent.”
Knudsen said so far she
hasn’t had anyone give her
a hard time about wearing
one, although she did share
some gentle ribbing with a
Seahawks fan sporting their
team’s logo on their mask.
Sports aren’t the only fan-
dom represented on masks.
When Kathy Street of
Boardman was recovering at
home from an injury a cou-
ple of years ago, she closely
followed the progress of a
hippopotamus named Fiona,
who was born dangerously
premature and was nursed to
health. So when Street was
ordering masks she ordered
a Fiona mask from the Cin-
Contributed photo
Shannon Hickam shows off her Trump 2020 mask she ordered from a seller on Etsy.
cinnati Zoo, which will use
the proceeds to support its
hippopotamus program.
“I’m a huge Fiona fan,”
she said.
Street, the Oregon Trail
Library District director,
wears a mask to the store now
and said when the library
reopens to patrons she will
wear a mask to work, as do
many Americans who work
with the public.
In some places, such as
hair salons and doctor’s
offices, masks are required
for employees, while other
businesses have voluntarily
implemented a requirement
for their employees to be
masked during their shift.
Some employers provide
disposable surgical masks or
a cloth mask with the name
of the business, while others
require employees to pro-
vide their own.
Becca LaBelle wrote
on the Hermiston Herald‘s
Facebook page that she sews
her own masks to wear to
work each day, using fabric
that will match her outfit.
“If you have to wear one
might as well look good,
right?” she said.
Shannon Hickam proudly
wears a “Trump 2020” mask
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