Kids’ return to school up in the air

Kelly Kenoyer

At press time Monday evening, Sept. 28, Linn County has officially dropped out of eligibility for in-person schooling. That’s because Linn County has had a lot more cases this week – 55, which is 43.5 per capita.

That number pushes Linn County out of compliance with state-imposed metrics, and now schools will have to remain closed for a minimum of three weeks, until cases fall back below the 30 per 100,000 max for the youngest students to return.

For grades 4-12, The state requires 10 cases or less per 100,000 for three consecutive weeks: a metric Linn County has not met since the Oregon Health Authority started releasing weekly COVID case updates in July.

“It’s frustrating for kids, it’s frustrating for parents and staff, to have this type of weekly volatility, particularly when cases spike in areas outside of our community but still within the county,” Yahraes said.

OHA puts out updated numbers by county every Monday, “though sometimes it’s Tuesday,” Yahraes said. He spends his Mondays reloading that page every 30 minutes for the latest updates, in between other tasks.

Still, despite forest fires, evacuations and a pandemic, school has started in Sweet Home. Yahraes said students are already becoming more independent in using the Canvas learning platform without parental help.

“They’re needing less support from parents, and teachers are becoming more familiar with the learning platform,” he said.

The district is struggling with delayed shipments of Chromebooks, but he hopes to get a shipment of 500 in the first week of October.

“We’re competing with Japan, China, Europe and beyond” for the hardware, he said, adding that the district has compensated for the gap with older iMacs and other laptops, which students will use until the replacements come.

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