Gov. Kate Brown orders Oregon schools to shift into in-person instruction by spring break

Kate Brown Sitton

“Whether or not public schools should return kids to the classroom this spring is no longer up for discussion,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff

Virtual learning will soon become the exception rather than the rule in Oregon’s public schools.

Elementary schools should begin offering classroom instruction by March 29, Gov. Kate Brown said Friday. Three weeks later, on April 19, middle and high schools should do the same.

“Whether or not public schools should return kids to the classroom this spring is no longer up for discussion,” Brown said in a release.

The governor is ordering the Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Education to revise their guidelines on how to operate schools during the pandemic by March 19.

Virtual learning will still be an option for families but districts must default to offering either full in-person instruction or a hybrid model based on community infection rates, Brown said.

The announcement came nearly one year after she initially ordered a two-week closure to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Districts that fail to meet Brown’s deadlines risk losing some state funding but spokesperson Charles Boyle told The Oregonian/OregonLive the governor doesn’t believe that will happen based on conversations she’s had with local leaders.

“In many districts, understanding the urgency of returning students to schools, local conversations have already resulted in consensus and concrete plans to return to in-person instruction,” Boyle said.

Friday’s announcement comes 10 weeks since Brown relaxed the state’s role in school reopening decisions. On Dec. 23, the governor announced that individual districts, rather than state officials, would make the final decision in whether to offer in-person instruction.

Back then, about 50,000 students in public schools were regularly visiting classrooms and getting face time with teachers. By the end of last week, that number had risen to 136,000 — about one in four of the state’s public school students.

Brown said the nearly $620 million in federal aid earmarked for Oregon schools should help that number grow. Districts have so far been able to tap into about $121 million.

Another $499 million will come online later this month.

Districts used most of the first round on virtual learning by purchasing laptops, internet hotspots and software. But state officials expect the next infusion will largely be spent on items that will aid in returning students to classrooms such as air filters, masks and cleaning supplies.

Still, it remains unclear whether and how Brown’s announcement will get more Portland-area students face-time with their teachers.

Hand sanitizer at Sitton Elementary

Oregon schools have spent the bulk of federal aid money so far on virtual learning supplies. The next infusion should largely go toward getting students back in classrooms, officials say.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff

Some districts still negotiating with unions

School reopening announcements by districts in the metro area have been met with fierce pushback from teachers’ unions over the last two months.

In Lake Oswego, Superintendent Lora De La Cruz walked back her initial plan to open elementary schools for in-person instruction in early February after the union issued a scathing letter saying its members “want to live and not be responsible for killing their families or sickening their students.

Portland Public Schools faced backlash from its union, which insisted the district mount a comprehensive survey of Black, Indigenous and other families of color before pursuing in-person learning. The union bargaining team canceled a negotiation session with district officials last week.

Members said negotiating was a “futile endeavor” then but returned to the bargaining table Thursday.

The statewide teachers union, the Oregon Education Association, in a Friday release said it supported a “spring timeline” for reopening schools. Most Portland-area districts have announced plans to either begin hybrid instruction, or to offer more details on their plans by spring break.

“We hear, understand, and share the frustration expressed by many in our communities about the uncertainty this pandemic has caused for our public education system, and the long-standing educational disparities that continue to be exacerbated by reopening plans that fail to truly center student equity,” union leaders from more than 50 districts across the state said in a joint release. “We urge our local school districts to continue to work in good faith with local educators to craft plans that will truly serve all of our students, and we are committed to expanding in-person instruction at our schools this spring.

Brown acknowledged the ongoing negotiations in some districts, saying, “I also strongly support the right of employees to collectively bargain, especially when it comes to their own safe working conditions.”

Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said he was confident the district would meet Brown’s deadline. He pointed to the district’s late February announcement that schools would begin offering hybrid instruction by mid-April.

“We always planned on a fourth quarter start,” he said.

Brown has increasingly faced pressure from parent groups and some lawmakers to reopen the state’s public schools. Senate Republicans boycotted a Feb. 25 legislative session and demanded Brown “immediately reopen schools.”

Asked Friday if the walkout spurred Brown’s order or influenced the timing of the announcement, the governor said flatly: “No.”

“The dates made sense. It seemed like a good time,” she told reporters at North Portland’s Sitton Elementary, noting that her deadline for districts to offer in-person instruction for younger children coincides with the end of spring break.

Brown described her latest order as yet another tool in her toolbox to compel a widescale reopening of Oregon schools.

Her decision to move educators to the front of the vaccination line in January was due, in part, to prompt districts to adopt reopening plans along across the state. But it did little to move the needle and the governor later faced a wave of criticism.

Gov. Kate Brown at Sitton Elementary School

Gov. Kate Brown on Friday ordered Oregon's public schools to begin phasing into fully in-person or hybrid instruction for elementary students starting the week after spring break.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff

Infections declining statewide

Friday’s school reopening order comes as coronavirus infections have steadily fallen throughout the state and in the Portland metro area in particular.

In December, Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties registered nearly 500 infections per 100,000 residents every two weeks — or 10 times higher than the Department of Education would allow for schools to offer in-person instruction.

Between Feb. 14 and Feb. 27, all three metro-area counties had infection rates below 100 per 100,000 residents.

A growing contingent of parents has been pushing for schools to make in-person instruction an option since the start of the academic year. Parents and their children began rallying for schools to reopen in Portland in December after mostly staging demonstrations in the suburbs and other cities.

On Feb. 27, a group protested in front of the Oregon Health Authority’s Portland headquarters calling for the agency to relax its rules covering distancing in school buildings and the number of people students may encounter over the course of a week.

School district officials say those mandates pose the tallest hurdles for a widescale return to high school classrooms.

State schools chief Colt Gill said those rules are among many under consideration for revision.

“We’re going to take a look at all of the guidelines,” he said.

School district leaders, educators and families have long said that distance learning does not come close to serving students as well as the traditional classroom experience.

Gill added Friday that he believes schools are among the safest facilities to reopen during the pandemic due in large part to the limits on how many people are allowed inside a classroom at a time and the screening processes districts are required to employ before students are let inside.

“Schools will be some of the lowest-risk environments,” Gill said.

--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook

Eder is The Oregonian’s education reporter. Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email ecampuzano@oregonian.com.

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