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UMATILLA COUNTY — As schools have returned to in-person classes in the spring, the Oregon Health Authority has started to record small outbreaks of COVID-19 among students across Umatilla County.
UMATILLA COUNTY — Oregon schools are getting unprecedented flexibility in how they conduct state testing this year in the face of a year marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Umatilla
Hermiston School District has announced it will opt out of state testing for the current school year.
School districts usually have students participate in state assessments in reading, math and science each spring. But Superintendent Tricia Mooney said this year the district will forgo those assessments in order to maximize the in-person instructional time students have left instead.
âThis is really about supporting our kids and supporting our teachers,â she said.
Usually, state testing takes between one to two weeks for students to complete. Even with much shorter tests this year, it would still mean time not in front of a teacher for students who just returned to in-person classes. Mooney said testing often creates anxiety for students, as well, and the district doesnât want to add to what has already been an anxious time.
HERMISTON â Hermiston School District had a lot to celebrate on Tuesday, April 13.
The district welcomed all students back to the classroom full time for the first time in over a year, and celebrated the groundbreaking for two new schools.
âThis day could not get any better,â Rocky Heights Elementary Principal Stefani Wyant said.
She said she was thrilled to see all of her school full again, and to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for a new, larger Rocky Heights that will be constructed in the current athletic fields next to the school.
The softball fields there are in the process of being moved to a new softball complex next to Hermiston High School, on the former fairgrounds. Students will continue to attend at the current building for the 2021-22 school year while construction is underway, before transferring to the new school in the fall of 2022.