UNION COUNTY — School districts across Union County were finalizing their reopening plans when Gov. Kate Brown announced new guidelines last week for gatherings and mask requirements. Districts are working to reconfigure their plans, particularly to meet the requirement that children ages 5 and older must wear a mask.

La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza said the goal has been to have students back in the classrooms as often and as safely as possible. To do that, the district is considering stable cohort models for kindergarten through sixth grade, which means classes will remain in the same group all day rather than mixing with other classes.

Jill McKinley has four children enrolled in La Grande’s schools and said her concern is for young children who could have a hard time learning sounds and words from a teacher who is wearing a mask.

“You have to see your teacher’s mouth move to learn sounds, and for them not to see their teacher’s mouth and have it be authentic, I think it would be really detrimental,” McKinley said. “I understand why we are doing what we are doing, but education wise I am concerned for those little guys.”

The district was considering a four-period block schedule prior to the mandate and is reevaluating that option, according to Mendoza.

“We are facing tough decisions about how to best educate students while keeping everyone safe, and we will work with staff, students and families to come up with a solution that works for them and our community,” Mendoza said.

McKinley is confident the district will do what is best for students but said there likely still will be problems following the mandates.

“I think the teachers are going to do an incredible job to make sure the quality is still there,” McKinley said. “However, the regulations that will be put on them to socially distance will have an impact on their education. The teachers and admin are going to do everything they possibly can. When you put those restrictions (on) it will be an issue.”

Parents prefer students go to classes

Mendoza said most parents are willing to adjust to the requirements as long as it means their children are able to attend school.

“Most parents have indicated they prefer their children back in school physically, and some have indicated they would like online,” Mendoza said. “Most families are okay with increased PPE, increased sanitation and social distance to have their children in school.”

Nancy Arceo-Davila’s daughter Giselle Sanchez, 15, who will be a sophomore at La Grande High School in the fall, shared with her mother that while it isn’t ideal, she understands she has to wear a mask if she hopes to go back to school.

“She is spending time online looking at masks so she can coordinate them with her outfits,” Arceo-Davila said. “She wants to see her teachers and friends, and if wearing a mask is required to do that, she is OK with that. She is adjusting and I think that is the right attitude to have about all of this. We don’t know how long it is going to be around, so do the best you can to protect yourself.”

Imbler Superintendent Angie Lakey-Campbell said she wasn’t surprised by Brown’s recent changes. Imbler schools plan to start classes Aug. 24, and Lakey-Campbell said the district intends to follow state requirements while still finding a way to get students in classrooms.

“We have a plan. We are going to have to adjust it a little bit,” Lakey-Campbell said. “We are just figuring out if the schedule we had planned will work with the new mandates and limiting student-to-student exposure.”

Key elements of Imbler’s reopening plan include students attending school on-site Monday through Thursday with half days on Fridays for students identified as needing additional support and online learning for all other students. Students will stay together in cohorts each day.

While elementary classes will be fairly traditional, sixth through 12th grade classes will be a mix of traditional classes and online classes. One of the biggest concerns, Lakey-Campbell said, is that following through with the mask mandate will take focus away from learning for younger students.

“Kids are kids, they’re going to be playing with masks,” Lakey-Campbell said. “Administering it, making sure they all have their masks and are on appropriately, it could take away from instruction.”

Some parents have reached out to the school to discuss the option of homeschooling. Lakey-Campbell said the district is working on putting online coursework together so that students can stay enrolled with the district while completing the work at home.

“We look at this as a community and we want to keep the community together as much as we can. If providing an online service helps (students) stay with us, we are going to try to do that,” Lakey-Campbell said.

Masks rule could be too strict

Cove School District Superintendent Earl Pettit echoed Lakey-Campbell with concerns that the new mandates would be overly restrictive and take away from a quality education for students.

“Simultaneous compliance with face covering, social distancing and cohort mandates may be systemically overly redundant, and makes delivery of a quality and meaningful educational experiences for our students all the more challenging,” Pettit said.

Cove plans to open Aug. 31. Faculty and staff at the district are revising the reopening plan for Cove, Pettit said. Classes will be on-site with the option to participate in Cove’s Virtual Learning Academy for those students who want to stay at home. There has been additional interest in this option since the governor announced the mask mandate for children, Pettit said.

Pettit also said it is primarily the Oregon Department of Education and decisions at the state level that will determine the fate of the school district’s reopening plans.

“The closer we get to opening the school, the more detail and level of control is directed by the state and less control for the people of our district,” Pettit said. “It seems to be the state’s universal reopening plan and ours only in name.”

Several parents in Elgin have expressed their desire to homeschool their children rather than require them to wear a mask at school. Michele Sandgren, who has a 9-year-old daughter attending school in Elgin, said she will likely home-school her child.

“I just think it’s unrealistic to expect a young child to wear a mask all day, let alone keep 6 feet away from their friends,” Sandgren said. “I can’t imagine how teachers are going to be able to enforce that.”

Elgin’s superintendent, Dianne Greif, said to follow this mandate it is likely the school will need to hire more staff and spend more money than initially budgeted. She said the mandate for children to wear a mask is not realistic and will cause more issues for returning to school in the fall.

The Elgin School Board had approved a reopening plan but when the new mandate was put in place the school district began reevaluating the plan. The plan called for the school to open Aug. 31 and teach in a more controlled but traditional in-person setting. The district met with faculty and staff to discuss the plan moving forward.

“A blanket policy of masks does not make sense for the entire state of Oregon,” Greif said. “The situations in our smaller schools is much different than what you would find in a district with thousands of children.”

The lack of connection between teachers and students is one of her biggest concerns.

“Children need to be able to see their teacher and be seen by their teacher,” Greif said. “Our kids need to play and learn, not have the worries that should be adult worries.”

State changes make planning a hurdle

Union School District Superintendent Carter Wells said the frequent, almost weekly changes in mandates have made planning for the upcoming school year difficult.

Union School District has not set a date yet for reopening and is spending the last week of July meeting with other superintendents statewide and regionally to determine what the next steps should be. Wells intends to meet with his faculty and staff for further discussions once he has met with the Oregon Department of Education and InterMountain Education Service District.

“We recently received these updates and we are trying to disseminate this information as quickly as possible,” Wells said. “We are looking at ways to make this work in the best possible way for our community.”

“We look at this as a community and we want to keep the community together as much as we can. If providing an online service helps (students) stay with us, we are going to try to do that.”

— Angie Lakey-Campbell, Imbler superintendent

“It seems to be the state’s universal reopening plan and ours only in name.”

— Earl Pettit, Cove superintendent

“She wants to see her teachers and friends, and if wearing a mask is required to do that, she is okay with that. She is adjusting and I think that is the right attitude to have about all of this. We don’t know how long it is going to be around, so do the best you can to protect yourself.”

— Nancy Arceo-Davila, La Grande parent