COVID cases up in La Grande School District
By Paul Hall on Friday, September 10th, 2021 in Northeastern Oregon News Northeastern Oregon Top Stories
LA GRANDE – The La Grande School District has had its toll of absent students and staff so far this year and the numbers are climbing. In August 82 cases of COVID were reported in the district and the first week of school in September there were 62 cases. According to Superintendent George Mendoza, last year students and staff didn’t show as many positive cases compared to this year where many more students are impacted with cases of COVID. The district is averaging about 17 substitutes per day this past week with a high of 22 Thursday.
When asked if it puts a strain on the school system. Mendoza said, once the district does not have enough substitutes to fill positions, it puts a huge impact on the day-to-day operations with some of the intervention classes such as title and reading specialist classes being canceled so that those teachers can cover classrooms. The district also starts to have para professionals that have restricted substitute licensure cover classrooms. Eventually the district may cancel specialty classes such as P.E. and music so those teachers can cover classrooms.
Mendoza indicated the system is strained when we have 30 staff members absent. When the numbers are higher than 40 the district begins to struggle severely to maintain all operations consistently; The trickledown of too many absent staff could stall in-person learning and for a short time, the district would have to strongly consider going back to distance learning for two weeks if there was not enough staff to work in person. Mendoza said, “Once we have 40 plus staff members absent, it’s hard for us to operate when we have that many gone consistently; our goal is to stay open and stay safe.”
