Mark Witty

Baker School District students in Grades 7-12 will be returning to classes four days a week beginning April 12 if all goes as planned in the next few weeks.

Superintendent Mark Witty announced in a press release Tuesday, March 23 that planning is underway to return the secondary students to full-time, in-person learning as a result of revisions by the Oregon Department of Education to its Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance plan.

The updated plan allows 3 feet of physical distancing for students in schools under certain conditions, which include county COVID-19 case rate levels for students in middle school and high school, the press release stated. The new physical distancing rules are based on current research and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The former rules required 6-foot distancing.

The new rules also do not require 35 square feet per person room space as was specified in the former regulations.

Staff must still maintain 6 feet of physical distancing, however, “as best they can,” Witty said.

The 6-foot distancing also must be maintained when students are eating or when students from different classrooms are passing in hallways between periods. The passing periods will not put students within close proximity for 15 minutes, the guideline for determining whether those who come in close proximity with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 must quarantine or isolate themselves from others, Witty said.

Staff and students also will be required to continue wearing masks.

Witty said the April 12 return to full-time classes will allow a two-week buffer between the March 29 return from spring break and any increase in COVID-19 cases that might result from travel during the week-long vacation.

Nine Baker School District students have tested positive for COVID-19 since classes started in September. None of those students contracted the virus at school, according to the school district and the Baker County Health Department. The most recent case, a middle school student, was reported Feb. 5, and there have been just two student cases since Dec. 9.

There will be no change to the schedule for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, who returned to four days of in-person instruction weekly on Oct. 14.

The secondary level students went back to in-person classes one day per week on Nov. 9, and to two days per week on Jan. 25.

Witty said comprehensive distance learning would remain in place for those who choose not to return to the classroom. The Baker Virtual Academy will continue to operate providing livestreaming classes and Eagle Cap Innovative High School will provide online classes for students to work at their own pace to serve families that make that choice, he said.

While many students choosing the online option have continued to do well in their studies, many will be happy to return to the classrooms full time, Witty said.

“Most kids — including me — do better in person,” he said.

The routines for sanitizing surfaces, washing hands and staying home when you’re sick that have been established throughout the year will continue to serve the schools well as the secondary students return to full-time classes, Witty said.

“We’ll continue checking people at the doorways and making sure they’re healthy,” he said. “We’ll keep doing our routines, and I’m confident that will continue to work.”

Witty worked closely with partners across the state, including the governor’s office, to push for changes that would allow the schools to return secondary students to more time in the classroom, the press release stated.

“As community risk lowers via greater numbers of vaccinations, we need to rebalance and focus on the social, emotional, and academic needs of our students,” Witty stated in the press release. “I am thrilled that we are now able to plan for our secondary students to have the opportunity to be back in school full time before the end of this school year.”