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Oregon school districts plan for reopening, but what will that look like?


Local school districts in Oregon are deep into planning for back-to-school this fall. (File/SBG)
Local school districts in Oregon are deep into planning for back-to-school this fall. (File/SBG)
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Local school districts in Oregon are deep into planning for back-to-school this fall.

But what will school really look like?

We did some checking with two districts in Lane County, and it's up to local school districts to come up with plans that will pass muster with the Oregon Department of Education and health authorities - both state and counties.

But right now it's a waiting game.

Districts are in the middle of major planning, trying to figure out whether teaching will happen on-site, through distance learning or something else.

"It might be a mixture of in-building learning," says Eugene 4J School Board chairperson Mary Walston. "Certainly, we’re going to have some online learning, some distance learning as we had before."

Walston says they're working from a blueprint handed down last month by the Department of Education - guidelines for how schools should operate amid COVID-19.

"But I can tell you 100 percent, they’re not going to look like they did on March 12, "Walston tells us.

She adds there are a ton of variables to figure out.

"Busing—how do we get kids to school if we have to keep them six feet apart?"

In Lowell, Superintendent Johnie Matthews says the busing issue is probably going to lead to staggered schedules.

But based on an early registration event, parents are clear about one point.

"We’ve never done it at the end of the year before," Matthews says, "but these parents were very very ecstatic about handing their registration packets in, hoping their kids would go back to school in the fall."

For President Trump, those plans can't come together soon enough, threatening this week to yank federal funding from schools if they don't reopen.

"I understand what he’s trying to do, I think, but he actually has no authority over local school districts," adds Walston.

The Eugene School Board gets the draft re-opening proposal at a meeting set for August 5.

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