Masks Strongly Recommended Indoors, Beginning March 19
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) announced plans to lift mask requirements for indoor public spaces and Oregon’s schools on Saturday, March 19, rather than the state’s previously announced date of March 31. This means that masking will become strongly recommended, rather than required, for most students and staff when they return to our schools and worksites after March 19. Watch the video update from the Oregon Department of Education.
We will talk more about this as it gets closer, but it is not okay to encourage anyone wearing a mask to take that mask off, even after the 19th. Additionally, I strongly recommend you refrain from celebratory comments about the end of the restriction, as there are students and staff who have shared that they are experiencing a tough time coming to grips with the idea sharing a space with so many unmasked individuals each day. The wearing or not wearing of a mask after the March 19 remains a personal choice and it is not your place to impart your personal views on others.
Staff may still be required to mask in specific work environments or conditions, such as when in an isolation room or working with students who are identified as medically vulnerable.
In the event that conditions require additional mitigation measures to control spread of COVID-19, masking could be made temporarily mandatory in a classroom, at a school, or district-wide. This mitigation measure could help to keep classrooms, departments, and schools open during surges of COVID-19 in our communities.
Print Shop Successes
As a school, we are crushing it with our Print Shop use. We have had 82.38% of our impressions made via the Print Shop, the second-highest usage rate in the district. The Print Shop charges us 2.18 cents per impression; the printer is costing us 10 cents per impression and our hallway printers cost us 4 cents per impression. With over 100,000 impressions created thus far, that is a monster savings that will allow us to have more funds available for students. Thank you for your use of the Print Shop for any thing that requires 30 or more impressions!
Added Special Education Endorsement
Lewis & Clark is offering an added endorsement in Special Education to teachers in the High Desert Regional District at a special, discounted rate. Classes will be held online to make them more practical and accessible to working teachers. This 10-month program begins July 2022 and there is an information session on March 9 from 5:30 – 6:30 that will be held via Zoom. To register for the information session, please click this link.
SpEd teachers continue to be in short supply, and this is a good opportunity for already-endorsed certified staff to add a SpEd endorsement at a discounted rate. The Special Education Generalist endorsement gives candidates an extensive overview of special education as it pertains to students with high- and low-incidence disabilities. You will learn how to assess student knowledge, as well as to identify and implement evidence-based practices to increase the success of students with different academic and behavioral disabilities. Check out this flyer for more information.
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