UMATILLA COUNTY — Eastern Oregon school districts that were holding out hope of getting students into classrooms for fall semester are now changing gears after the Oregon Department of Education’s new metrics for opening schools made an in-person start unlikely.

In order for any school in Oregon to be able to have students in the classroom, the entire state must have less than 5% of COVID-19 tests conducted coming back positive for three consecutive weeks. Then, the county where a school district resides must also have a less than 5% positive test rate and fewer than 10 new confirmed cases per 10,000 people in a seven-day period, three weeks in a row.

An exception can be granted for rural schools with less than 100 students to bring kindergarten through third grade back into the classroom if they meet slightly looser metrics, including 30 new confirmed cases per 10,000.

Umatilla and Morrow counties were falling far short of those requirements in July, and districts have seen the writing on the wall for an online-only start.

Pendleton shifts focus to distance learning

The Pendleton School District’s new 2020-21 plan shifts its focus to distance learning, but retains some of the structure of the blueprint the district drafted when it still planned some in-person teaching.

At an Aug. 4 Pendleton School Board meeting, Superintendent Chris Fritsch said the district still plans to implement “synchronous” teaching next school year, meaning online school will function on a set schedule, although each lesson will be recorded for students who can’t attend live instruction.

“It is interactive. It’s not just sitting there, static, staring at a screen,” he said.

Secondary students will still be split into “green” and “gold” days, each day covering four periods of subject classes.

But there are still challenges school officials are trying to work out in a district where 1 in 5 students did little to no work

Students will be expected to attend school without the benefit of adult supervision, and child care remains a concern for Pendleton parents.

A district survey of 500 parents shows that a majority of parents have an unmet child care need, and board member Steve Umbarger estimated the raw numbers of parents with that issue is likely larger than the survey showed.

Fritsch said some parents commented on the survey that they are considering an ultimatum between working their jobs and taking care of their kids during distance learning.

Stanfield hopes more lead time pays off

“This is not what we had envisioned,” Stanfield School District Superintendent Beth Burton said.

Burton said the good news is that the district has much more time to prepare for comprehensive distance learning than they did when schools were closed with only a day’s notice in the spring. She said parents and students should expect a much more comprehensive, rigorous offering this time around, with students interacting via video with their teacher and peers on a regular basis.

“(In the spring) we worked really hard at it, but we didn’t have the time to be really methodical about planning it,” she said.

Stanfield School District had already pushed back its usual August start time to Sept. 8 to give construction crews working on the expansion of the schools more time to work without students on campus.

Morrow County faces potential internet issues

Morrow County School District’s board of education voted on Tuesday, Aug. 4, to push the start date for school to Sept. 8 to give teachers an extra week to implement virtual instruction.

Superintendent Dirk Dirksen said until the announcement from the state, the original plan had been to offer parents a choice between a hybrid model or an online-only experience. He said the district had planned to help those students who were going to be online-only with access to internet and devices, but it will be more difficult now that the entire school district will be using that option.

“We have enough devices for all the kids, the problem is coming up with internet,” he said. “Some parts of Heppner don’t even have any cell service.”

He said staff were disappointed that they would not be able to serve students in person to start out the year, but they were ready to take up the challenge.

Athena-Weston renews commitment to distance learning

One of the unique aspects of the Athena-Weston School District’s blueprint is its commitment to a distance learning orientation for each and every student.

Superintendent Laure Quaresma said teachers are already meeting one-on-one with students and parents, both to introduce themselves and familiarize each family with the distance learning model. She added that the orientations are especially important for students on the verge of a transition, whether it’s incoming kindergarteners, students new to middle school or high school, or upperclassmen close to graduation.

Quaresma acknowledged that synchronous teaching was the latest buzzword in education, but she said asynchronous access was still important for families who can’t always meet the schedules.

“We’re trying to make this super user friendly so that kids don’t fall behind,” she said.

Quaresma said she’s hoping the state will relax some of its rules to allow the district to offer small group in-person teaching, which she said could be important for special education students or students without internet access.