SALEM — Oregon schools have been granted more power to determine how they will teach their students during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to new policy initiatives from Gov. Kate Brown.

In a letter to Oregon Health Authority director Pat Allen and Department of Education director Colt Gill on Wednesday, Dec. 23, the governor issued several directives to the agencies with the goal of opening Oregon’s schools for in-person instruction. Most notably, the governor said that guidance from the state on school reopening would become advisory rather than mandatory in the new year.

“It is my hope that more Oregon schools, especially elementary schools, will transition to in-person instruction by February 15, 2021,” Gov. Brown said in the letter.

While most schools in Union County were already set to return for in-person instruction in January — including K-6 students in La Grande — the changes could mean that La Grande’s middle and high schoolers might return to in-person instruction in the near future.

La Grange School District Superintendent George Mendoza said that La Grande schools are still planning to move forward with the reopening plan he announced on Dec. 16, which returns kindergarten through sixth-grade students on Jan. 11 and seventh- through 12th-grade students tentatively returning for in-person instruction at the start of the next semester, on Jan. 27.

“I am fairly sure we will move forward with middle school and high school getting the opportunity to be in school starting the beginning of our second semester,” Mendoza said in an email. “What we currently planned with K-6 should be a good phase in plan to help us initially with lower grades then successfully transition all other secondary (7-12) students that want to be back in our schools.”

Union, Cove, Imbler, Elgin and North Powder schools were expected to continue providing in-person instruction to all their students in the new year thanks to an extension of Oregon’s Safe Harbors program, with the exception of those who need to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure, symptoms or positivity.

With Brown’s announcement that reopening guidance would become advisory in the new year, that expectation is now all but a certainty.

“We will be able to continue using the model we have been using, one which has been successful,” said Union School District Superintendent Carter Wells.

Wells said his school district’s teachers and students are happy they will not have to open the new year in January using an online model.

“That would have been very disappointing for our students and teachers,” Wells said.

The superintendent said onsite instruction is “hands down” the best way to educate students.

The metrics for school reopening, which some Union County school officials have previously described as “moving goalposts” for their frequent changes, are slated to become advisory rather than mandatory on Jan. 1, 2021. This means that individual school districts will have the authority to determine how their students will be taught during the pandemic based on the local situation.

“Moving forward, the decision to resume in-person instruction must be made locally, district by district, school by school,” Gov. Brown said in the letter. “In addition to schools continuing to adhere to required health and safety protocols and working in close consultation with their local public health authority in understanding and considering the metrics, teachers, school staff, parents and students should be engaged in this decision-making process to allow schools to make the best choice for their community and their students.”

The OHA and ODE were also instructed to collaborate with school to provide on-site rapid COVID-19 testing, to review and update the Ready Schools, Safe Learners state guidance for reopening by Jan. 19, and to collaborate with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to ensure school safety protocols allow for maximum in-person instruction while ensuring safety for students and staff.

Comprehensive distance learning has been widely panned as detrimental to the academic success of students as well as the mental and social health of students and school staff alike.

North Powder, for example, released a video about in-person versus distance learning in which students of all ages widely attest to the ineffectiveness and difficulty of online learning. Schools across the county also mounted a social media campaign against a return to distance learning earlier this month.

The governor acknowledged the severe negative effects that long-term distance learning has had on students, citing it as a driving reason for the change in guidance. She also reminded Oregonians that keeping COVID-19 under control in each community is key to ensuring that returning to in-person instruction is safe.

“The long-term benefits of both heading off an emerging mental health crisis for our children and youth, and addressing the academic challenges that are becoming prevalent for far too many students in the absence of in-person learning, now far outweigh the short-term risk,” the governor said. “I am confident that if all Oregonians do our part over the holidays and in the new year, our schools, educators and local public health officials will have had the time, the on-the-ground experience, and now the resources to return our students to school.”

Mendoza will participate in a virtual town hall with Union County’s public health authority, the Center for Human Development, and Grande Ronde Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 30. The online event will feature a public Q & A and will be moderated by EO Alive TV. Mendoza is expected to discuss La Grande’s return to school during the town hall, which will begin at 6 p.m. at www.eoalive.tv.