Oregon school buildings are closed for the rest of the academic year.
Schooling will continue through online courses, video chats and other forms of distance learning. Seniors who were on track to graduate before the state initially closed schools last month will receive passing grades and are assured of graduation.
Gov. Kate Brown made the announcements Wednesday afternoon.
“It is impossible to adhere to social distancing measures in our classrooms and in our schools,” she said. She added that Oregon’s education workforce is typically older and potentially more vulnerable to COVID-19.
“Every state in the country is struggling with these decisions,” she said. “I know this is certainly not what any of us were hoping for, but it is truly the best decision for our system.”
The Oregon Education Association, which is the state’s largest teacher union, and the Oregon School Boards Association praised Brown’s decision, which had been expected. Districts are to continue paying employees.
During the press conference, Brown said she had no timeline for reopening closed businesses or relaxing other social distancing measures. She also said schools should hold off on hiring new employees envisioned through last year’s Student Success Act and its new tax on businesses.
Brown called on the state’s 197 school districts to focus on seniors who were not meeting graduation requirements when schools closed. Districts are to create personalized graduation and transition plans for each senior and help them proceed with college, job training, military service or other goals.
Colt Gill, who heads the state Department of Education, said this approach frees up seniors’ teachers, school counselors and administrators to ensure they seek out every student who was failing a required course and help them earn the needed graduation credits.
If seniors have met the graduation threshold and do not need continued study, their schooling might be done. Their version of distance learning is up to them and their district. “If districts want to keep seniors fully engaged in coursework, they can,” Marc Siegel, the department’s communications director, said later.
Colt said it’s up to individual districts to decide whether to extend school into the summer. Some might also choose to start the 2020-21 school year early. Seniors have until Aug. 31 to complete graduation requirements for the class of 2020 through a variety of means.
Sports and other state championships are canceled. Districts are encouraged to create alternatives to in-person proms, senior trips, commencement and other milestone events, or to reschedule them for when social distancing can be lifted.
“Think of creative ways to celebrate this class,” Gill said. “This is a class that we know are developing a lot of resilience right now, and we believe they’re ready for their next steps in life.”
Last week, the Department of Education instructed districts to contact students, ensure they were physically safe and healthy, address any behavioral health issues and then deal with learning. Next week, districts are to provide instruction in earnest.
“This does look different across the entire state,” Gill said Wednesday. “I want to be clear that distance learning is not synonymous with online learning, although it is online learning in some cases.”
Examples he gave included teachers working with a group of students through a video or audio conference, having one-on-one calls with students and posting a YouTube video of a teaching session.
“We have places in Eastern Oregon where they don’t have great internet connections where our school buses are delivering learning packets to students, and they’re bringing those back to the teachers and getting evaluative feedback on those,” Gill said.
Oregon’s recommendations mirror those in Washington, California, Kansas, Utah and other states, he said. The Department of Education has posted resources for educators and families, including a sample daily schedule for distance learning.
“It’s a heavy lift. It’s a heavy lift for the educators. It’s a heavy lift for our parents, as well,” Gill said.
Dick Hughes is a freelance journalist who has covered education and other Oregon issues since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com.
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