Portland schools to stay online until Jan. 28
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, October 6, 2020
- Guadalupe Guerrero superintendent of Portland Public Schools said the state's largest district will continue distance learning through at least January 28.
Portland Public Schools will continue distance learning through at least Jan. 28, Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said Tuesday night, Oct. 6.
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Children at PPS and other districts in the area have been learning at home online since March when the COVID-19 pandemic gathered steam.
The COVID-19 virus has already killed more than 580 Oregonians and more than 35,000 have contracted the virus.
Many parents have called for the schools to reopen so children can get more effective teaching and have the benefit of interacting with their peers. Speaking at the district’s school board meeting, Guerrero said the health metrics are not trending favorably for the district to invite students back to school buildings to learn in person.
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“We need public health metrics to dramatically improve” to bring students back to school, he said.
“The highest priority remains the health and safety of our students and staff,” he added.
The state’s largest school district is planning for restarting some limited in-person student opportunities, including some athletics. The district is rolling out childcare in elementary schools, with some school childcare operations already open. PPS will offer 360 to 400 spots at 12 sites in upcoming weeks.
Although there is not a start date, PPS is planning for limited athletic opportunities, initially for high school students. Brenda Martinek, the district’s chief of student support services said the district is planning for outdoor, masked and socially distanced strength and fitness training at the high school level. The size of the groups will be limited and members of the groups will be constant. “These will not be regular practices,” Martinek stressed. “I don’t have a specific timeline.”
The district is doing the planning for bringing back other limited groups of students, such as high school students who are behind in credits to graduate, pupils in early grades with disabilities and other specific groups.
Gov. Kate Brown said earlier Tuesday that despite increasing coronavirus transmission numbers statewide, the state is looking at revisiting and relaxing the infection benchmarks in order to accelerate the reopening of school buildings. The state is obtaining an increased number of rapid COVID-19 tests, which will help in the battle against the virus, Brown said, but added that “we cannot test our way out of this pandemic.”
Both Guerrero and Brown urged everyone to continue the pandemic precautions of wearing masks, washing hands, keeping physical distance and limiting social gatherings to bring the infection rates down.
PPS Director Rita Moore implored everyone to follow safeguards “with fidelity every nanosecond of every single day.”
She expressed dismay about a recent parent demonstration in Salem calling for schools to reopen. But she noted the irony that few of the demonstrators were masked and there was no social distancing.
Brown said the state is exploring changes to the school health metrics but said “my top priority to is make sure that we get our kids back to school safely.”