HSD, along with other large school districts in Oregon and in consultation with both the Governor’s office and health officials, made a commitment to staff to allow them the opportunity to be fully vaccinated before returning to the classroom. This opportunity is being provided as quickly as possible in line with vaccine availability in our state and region. It is also important to note that we are obligated to abide by the Oregon Department of Education’s Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidelines with regard to maximum numbers of students transported on a bus or present in a single classroom, the maximum number of other people a student can come into contact with over the course of a week, etc. We have not strayed from the commitment we made in the fall, which was to make decisions and proceed in alignment with advice from medical experts and in accordance with required guidelines.

Our plan is for students to be assigned to their current teacher for hybrid instruction. There may be exceptions to this based on extenuating circumstances, but the majority of elementary students should be able to remain with their teacher.

Parents of students in grades PreK-6 are being asked to make their decision by Friday, February 19, 2021. Parents of students in grades 7-12 will be surveyed in the near future (no specific date has yet been set).

We will still be monitoring case rates and if they spike above 350 once we have students attending in the hybrid model, it will not automatically force a return to CDL. We will consult with our District Nurse team and Washington County Public Health on next steps. Most likely, we will be able to continue in the hybrid model with those grade levels that are already in hybrid, but not expand to additional grade levels until the rates are back within the thresholds for expanding in-person schooling.

Attempts will be made to speak to the student and/or their parent/guardian about behaviors or actions that are not in alignment with the health and safety protocols all schools will be following. If those attempts are unsuccessful, the student will likely need to go back to CDL only.

People of any age can be asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19; however, by following the recommended health and safety protocols of mask-wearing, hand sanitizing/handwashing, maintaining physical distance, and avoiding contact with people who are ill, the risk of transmission is greatly diminished. Parents will be asked to do a daily check of their child’s health and not to send them to school if they are exhibiting any of the signs and symptoms listed in the “Too Sick for School?” flyer. Students will also have their temperature taken and be asked about their general health upon arriving at school. Each school will have an isolation room where students can await pick-up by a parent/guardian if they begin exhibiting COVID-19-like symptoms during the day.

Each building HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system design is unique. Many of our HVAC systems have had equipment upgrades within the past few years. As a COVID-precautionary response, the District has implemented control-level strategies to provide increased ventilation. These strategies include extended occupancy schedules; adjustments to minimum outside air settings; and broadened min/max set points. Additionally, we have service contracts in place with our controls systems vendors for the purpose of monitoring equipment performance.

Students in grades 7-12 attend multiple classes per day, which means that in a normal school day or week, they come in contact with hundreds of other students. The current Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance calls for secondary students to come in contact with no more than 100 other people per week, which is extremely challenging. Also, given the requirements on physical space in our classrooms, each class only holds 10-20 students.  Students need to be grouped in ways that they fit in a given space. However, we are committed to figuring out a way for our secondary students who would like to return to hybrid learning, to be able to do so for at least a portion of each week once the health metrics have been met (case rate of 200 or less per 100,000 of population for the preceding two weeks).

This pandemic has created less-than-ideal situations for all of our students, but especially for our seniors. We feel for them and are working hard to devise a plan to get them back on campus for at least the last several weeks of this school year. For last year’s graduation, we planned and executed a completely new experience over the course of just a few weeks. We are holding out hope that we can provide a more traditional graduation experience for students this year. We will continue monitoring the health metrics and considering options that would allow our seniors to be together for this once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Stay tuned for more information.