Roseburg School District Adjusts Plans Following New State Reopening Guidance

(Roseburg Public Schools) The Oregon Department of Education provided updates Tuesday to the state guidance and requirements that school districts must follow in determining how to best reopen to in-person learning. A key change announced Tuesday involves the case rate metrics framework, which has been eased to allow more students to return to school. Roseburg Public Schools is excited to announce that, under the updated metrics framework, we can continue with our plans to reopen to full-time, in-person learning for all of our elementary school students, grades PK-5, on January 25. The new metrics framework allows us to carefully open these grades if local case rates are below 350 per 100,000 people over the previous two-week period. The latest local case rates, released today, are 211.1 per 100,000 people in our county. Unfortunately, local case rates have risen too high to reopen to secondary students as planned on January 25. Case rates must be below 200 per 100,000 people in order to begin the return of secondary students to in-person/hybrid learning. Our plan moving forward will be to begin in-person hybrid learning for grades 6-12 as soon as we meet the metrics threshold for secondary students. Oregon Health Authority releases county health metrics on Monday afternoons. As soon as we meet the metrics, we will plan to open to 6-12 the following Monday. While this will cause a delay in opening to grades 6-12, the district will continue to offer limited in-person instruction opportunities. These opportunities have been effective in providing much-needed additional support for students, and we will continue to encourage secondary students to participate. “Since the beginning of the school year, Roseburg Public Schools has strictly adhered to the state’s mandates and guidance to best protect student and staff health, adjusting our plans as needed,” said Superintendent Jared Cordon. “We believe that following the path we have set throughout the year to manage these adjustments has been the safest and most responsible option for our district.”