Union County schools would want to control protocols if COVID-19 spikes again

May 17—UNION COUNTY — Oregon's COVID-19 case rate is rising again and this has state health and education officials worried.

The state issued a health advisory Friday, May 13, effective through Aug. 31 recommending that schools require face masks again in counties where the federally defined risk level is high. No Oregon counties have reached this level yet but six are classified as medium. These six, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting, are Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Columbia, Benton and Deschutes counties.

The other 30 counties in the state, including Union and Wallowa counties, are listed as low, according to federal ratings, which is based on hospitalization data.

The state's warning comes amid rising coronavirus cases, a previously predicted bump brought on by the highly infectious omicron BA.2 subvariant and the lifting of mask restrictions. Hospitalizations are rising, too, and are predicted to peak around 320 within about a month.

According to OHA data, pediatric COVID-19 cases have been increasing since the middle of March, similar to cases statewide. Hospitalizations remain low but are on the rise. Health officials have called it "a mild virus" in most cases.

The advisory also recommends that schools monitor for high absentee rates and notify their local public health authority if absences reach a certain level, or if they see an "unusual spread of disease."

ODE said schools leaders should tell their county health officials if absences exceed certain benchmarks, such as if absences reach 30% or more, with at least 10 students or staff absent at the school level, and if classroom absences reach 20% or more, with at least three students or staff absent.

Should Union County reach the federally defined high level it appears that school districts would fall back on the protocols they had in place before March 12 when the state lifted the requirement that students wear masks in schools.

La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza said his district would continue to make decisions based upon its Communicable Disease Plan. The plan calls for specific protocols to be in place depending upon the level of the school district's infection rate. Mendoza said that the school district would continue working closely with health care organizations in the county such as the Center for Human Development to make sure that it was moving in the right direction.

Earl Pettit, Cove School District's superintendent, voiced a similar sentiment when asked about what his district would do if COVID-19 rates spiked again.

"We have a protocol in place for communicable disease and that is what we will follow," he said.

Union School District Superintendent Carter Wells said his district also would strive to take matters into its own hands.

"We would consider all factors and do what is best for our students and staff," he said. "We would consider all options."

Doug Hislop, superintendent of the Imbler School District, also said he would want his school district to be able to decide the steps it thinks would be best if COVID-19 rates spiked again in Union County.

He said he would not want masks in schools to be a topic of debate again. This is not an argument Hislop would look forward to being involved in again because it became so heated earlier in the pandemic.

"It divided the community," he said.

Hislop hopes that he never has to be in the middle of the mask debate again.

"I would not wish that upon anyone," he said.

The Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Education also reminded schools that students or staff with COVID-like symptoms have to stay home, and asked families not to send sick children to school, to have them tested and, if eligible, to get them vaccinated.

— Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Elizabeth Miller and The Oregonian reporter Fedor Zarkhin contributed to this report.