SH students to return to schools during February

Kelly Kenoyer

The Sweet Home School District has announced plans to bring all students back to in-person learning during the month of February, starting with K-3 students on Feb. 1.

Supt. Tom Yahraes announced the plan at the Monday, Jan. 11 school board meeting, attended by the full board: Chairman Jason Redick, Debra Brown, Jenny Daniels, Jim Gourley, Dale Keene, Chanz Keeney, Joe Kennedy, Mike Reynolds and Jason Van Eck.

“We cannot continue with ‘if we come back;’ we need a ‘when,'” Yahraes told the board, before outlining a detailed, week-by-week plan for students to return in February. It will start with the youngest grade school students returning on Feb. 1, after three days of asynchronous remote learning the week of Jan. 25.

Those students will attend either morning or afternoon sessions five days a week, based on alphabetical order by last name, or by bus route.

On Feb. 12, seniors will have a school orientation to prepare for in-person learning.

The week of Feb. 15, grades four through six will start attending a.m. or p.m. sessions four days a week, with a similar system as the younger students. That week will also include school orientations for grades seven to 11. Finally, on Feb. 22, grades seven through 12 will return to in-person schooling for two shortened days per week. For junior high, grade 7 gets Mondays and Tuesdays, while grade 8 gets Thursdays and Fridays. In the high school, the division is based on alphabetical order by last name.

“Any K-12 student may continue distance learning if a family chooses,” Yahraes added, citing students with pre-existing conditions or who have family members with health risks.

Yahraes said it has been a challenge to communicate why the schools are closed to the community, particularly when the metrics and requirements across the state of Oregon have varied so much over time, and have varied based on the district size, county size, school size, and metrics.

“Public school districts, in order to stay open and receive funding, must comply with ODE and OHA guidelines.”

“In January it shifted from mandatory to advisory, kind of,” Yahraes said, citing an announcement by Gov. Kate Brown on Dec. 23 which gave back some local control to schools.

“Schools must continue to adhere to the required health and safety protocols and work in close consultation with their local public health authority,” he said, quoting the governor.

Those various health and safety requirements are why the schools aren’t re-opening for full school days for all students. The school buses are extremely limited in how many students are allowed on board, and classrooms require similar social distancing to remain complaint with state requirements under the “Ready Schools, Safe Learners” plan.

“When schools follow required health and safety protocols, there is low risk of transmission and illness when students resume in-person instruction,” Yahraes said, adding that schools have been found to not be a source of spread for COVID-19, and instead help mitigate spread because of testing and health protocols.

“States with metrics of 350 positive cases per 100,000 people have been operating using hybrid in-person instruction successfully,” he said, pointing to Minnesota and Colorado as examples.

District Nurse Patty Oday agreed that re-opening could be done safely.

“The fear that you would have one infected student come to school and then many other kids and teachers would get infected has just not happened,” she said. “I believe our staff is vigilant and following protocols to keep everyone as safe as possible.”

Additionally, Yahraes said the district is hoping to get teachers and staff vaccinated as soon as possible to help mitigate risk. He and other Linn County superintendents have been meeting with the county Health Department to make plans for vaccinations, with one plan for vaccinating all staff, and another to prioritize K-6 staffers in case there aren’t enough vaccines available.

“In working with the Linn County director, he believes that within the month, school staff will be eligible to begin vaccination,” Yahraes said. “We have a balance to strike to stop the detrimental academic, social and emotional effects of being out of school, versus doing everything we can not to contribute to a community pandemic.”

President Elizabeth Hunt said her members have a few different perspectives on the governor’s call to reopen.

“We have a lot of staff members who are so eager to be working… in person with kids,” she said. “There are a lot of impassioned staff members who are terrified. It feels like some of the last things that were there to protect us, that if the spread was too big in our community to be safe… that we would be able to work at a distance.”

Classified Employee Representative Velma Canfield said vaccination would make a difference for how comfortable employees feel about the return.

“I’m sincerely hoping we can get our first round of vaccines soon,” she said. “I think that would make a lot of our people a lot more comfortable.”

Part of the reason the school district is waiting to start in-person learning is to limit liability risks. ODE also asked districts to wait for updates to the comprehensive Ready Schools, Safe Learners plan, to be completed by Jan. 19. The timeline Chief Academic Officer Rachel Stucky outlined allows for those updates to be incorporated into the district’s plans.

“Masks, social distancing, all the cleaning and screening protocols, must be followed in order for us to get kids back in schools,” Yahraes said.

He added that parents should be aware of the possibility that staff or students may be required to stay home for quarantine or contact tracing, possibly with little notice, so he asked for flexibility. It’s also possible entire schools could close if there is an outbreak, or if it’s suggested by the county health authorities.

The district has a lot to do before students return on Feb. 1, including dealing with insurance issues, preparing staff for the operations, reviewing the blueprint for a return, and dealing with vaccinating staff.

“I’m taking it one day at a time,” Yahraes said.

Between now and February, the plan is to get a resolution for PACE insurance coverage, review blueprint materials and prepare operations, incorporate the new guidance from Jan. 19, and work on vaccinating staff.

Board members praised Yahraes and Stucky for the re-opening plan, which is even more aggressive than the governor’s goals.

“This is an amazing amount of work,” said Debra Brown. “I think for too long we’ve been listening to politicians, they’ve been making decisions and mandates, when all the experts are saying your kids are better off in school.”

Van Eck agreed that it’s best for students to return.

“All the studies are showing that it’s not the schools that are spreading it,” he said. “Kids are struggling. I’ve got an A-B student who just got her first D, and she’s devastated. So let’s get them back to actual learning.”

Yahraes said there has been a lot of feedback from the community about returning students to schools, and doing it as normally as possible.

“As case counts diminish and folks get ‘vaccined up’, I’m sure the protocols will lessen and we can get back to other phases of normalcy,” he said.

“All in all, I think it’s a great plan,” Redick said.

In other board action:

– High School Athletic Director Nate Tyler gave a presentation about the first “mini” season of athletics, held last fall, which included all spring sports.

“Pretty regularly we’ve had the carpet swept out from under us and we’ve had to start from scratch with new planning, new brainstorming in finding opportunities for kids,” he said. Eventually, in early fall state officials landed on running three mini-seasons during the fall for all three seasons of sports.

Tyler said the spring mini season from Sept 21 to Oct. 30 included 85 athletes and nine contests between baseball, softball, track and field, and golf.

“None of our coaches received pay for this season,” he said. “Every single one of our coaches was still jumping at the opportunity to work with kids.”

That mini-season was cut short because of a COVID exposure, he said, “so we took one week off.” That case came from the student’s home, however, and there was no COVID spread within the program.

For the fall mini-season, which ran Nov. 2 to 20, included 112 athletes and a total of seven contests. The football team only competed as a club team, however, with seven-on-seven matches.

The winter mini-season didn’t happen at all, Tyler said. That was due to the freeze instituted by Gov. Brown in mid-November, right when the winter mini-season was supposed to start.

“We haven’t had any actual practices since Nov. 17,” Tyler said. “We’ve been totally shut down for almost two months now.”

Dance and cheer have been practicing since August, but they were also shut down on Nov. 17.

Tyler described the safety measures implemented for practice as well, including wiping down baseballs, softballs and basketballs every day, as well as using face masks, contact tracing, and other protocols.

He credited the athletic program with helping with student achievement. About half of the student athletes were failing two or more classes on Oct. 1, he said, but by Nov. 13 that number was down to four students failing just one class.

Yahraes congratulated the athletic director for his hard work.

“It’s been our goal for every kid to be connected to some activity when they get to high school, whether it’s drama or a sport or choir,” he said. “It’s been a very difficult time period, it’s been disappointing, but you’ve shown perseverance, the students have shown perseverance in trying to find what we can do and be safe. So I appreciate that.”

– Mid-Valley STEM-CTE Pipeline Director Sarah Whiteside spoke about a few micro-grants the organization gave to Sweet Home programs at Sweet Home High School. Blake Manley and Michelle Snyder both received some funding for their CTE programs.

She also gave a presentation about the purpose of her organization, which is one of 13 STEM hubs across the state.

“We’re funded by grants and investment from industry,” she said, and focused on a “cradle to career” population ages pre-k through 20. The hub has been around since August 2020, and is seeking partner organizations in the Linn-Benton area.

“We are actively looking for volunteers to be speakers and host students for internships and share skills,” she added.

– Finance Director Kevin Strong said the district’s spending has declined by $249,870 compared to last year, largely because of some unfilled classified position vacancies, lower spending on bus fuel, not paying stipends for sports coaches, and lower costs for paying substitute teachers.

Strong said the bond spending is still on track, and costs have been low enough with the construction that “we can move forward with ordering new bleachers for the gym.”

– Facilities Director Josh Darwood showed the board improvements made to school buildings, and said facilities now have keycard entries, security cameras, and LED lighting throughout.

“There was a lot of really neat stuff inside,” he said. “It’s fun to look back at the promises we’ve kept, and how Sweet Home schools has made great improvements for the community.

“Not only did we make it so it won’t fall down in an earthquake, it now is more appealing with the sound panels and the LED lighting and the paint job, it looks a ton better.”

He said he is frequently at the Junior High with contractors.

“I forget until I’m looking back at these pictures the drastic difference. It really made a big change, and doesn’t even feel like the same building. pretty awesome.”

The old Junior High cafeteria, Darwood noted, was in an old modular building that was at the end of its lifespan. The new cafeteria has an entire wall of windows that overlook the high school football field and let in natural light.

– Yahraes recognized the school board for its contributions to the community in commemoration of the governor’s designation of January as a month for board recognition.

“Under your guidance, we increased instructional days for students from 147 to 174 days and going from a four- to five-day week,” Yahraes said. “We’ve raised the graduation rate by over 13 percent from the low 70s to the mid 80s.”

He thanked each board member for their years of service, from the newest member, Keene, to Reynolds, who has served 17 years.

– The board voted to move several new school board policies to their third reading at the next meeting. They’re related to bias incident complaint procedure, family and medical leave, retirement of staff, COVID leave, school counseling programs, graduation exercises, equal educational opportunity, and how to deal with threats of violence.

– The board unanimously voted in favor of an agreement to receive educational services from Linn Benton Lincoln Education Service District, which consolidates resources to support small schools. The service district gives participating districts the opportunity to pool resources and buy access to software and materials together, or share staff amongst various districts.

– The board voted unanimously to accept donations of an English oak and a redwood tree to the high school wood shop, as well as 84 used Chromebooks from Lebanon School District.

– The board accepted the resignation of Billie Cannon, who has been a behavior support coach at the school district. Cannon will stay with the district until March 12.

– The board approved the budget calendar for this year, with committee meetings from April 14 to June. 14.

– The board unanimously approved the licensed professional agreement, which was agreed to by the union.

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