By TERESA CARSON/Pamplin Media
Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday abruptly announced new rules for school re-openings, making former directives optional and allowing districts to open if they follow safety precautions.
In a letter to health and education agencies, she said “effective Jan. 1, 2021, Oregon’s COVID-19 Health Metrics for Returning to In-Person Instruction will become advisory rather than mandatory. Moving forward, the decision to resume in-person instruction must be made locally, district by district, school by school.”
In an effort to tamp down the COVID-19 pandemic, most Oregon schools have been closed since mid-March and students have been learning remotely in their homes. Many parents and students had become increasingly frustrated with the situation and the calls for reopening schools had become more strident as the months wore on.
The governor said her hope is that “more” Oregon schools resume on-site teaching by Feb. 15, particularly elementary schools.
The Wednesday announcement was made as school districts were out on winter break and most administrators were not available for comment.
The spokeswoman for the Lincoln County School District said they would have no statement Wednesday reacting to the governor’s announcement.
The district had opened for “hybrid” instruction — two days in class and three days online — for kindergarteners through third grades since October and early November. But it’s plans to bring all students back by early December were scuttled when the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed in Lincoln County. And, when the county entered the state’s “extreme risk” category last week, the district announced it would halt all classroom instruction when the winter break ends Jan. 4 and resume online instruction for all students for at least a month.
Now, the decision will be up to the Lincoln County district alone.
But, the governor’s office cautioned school districts to be wise.
The situation was complicated by resistance from some teachers unions. Some teachers are at high risk for COVID-19 or have high-risk people in their households.
Schools had been closed and the parameters for re-opening were complicated and changed several times. They also were more stringent in Oregon that most other states.
The announcement said the goal of the new policy is “putting more school districts on track to return students to in-person instruction especially elementary students, by Feb. 15.”
The Oregon Education Association immediately issued a statement slamming Brown’s announcement.
“Today’s decision by Gov. Brown will only result in an increasingly disparate patchwork of return plans throughout the state’s public education system — creating uncertainty in a moment when clarity has never been more crucial,” the association wrote.
