Sept. 21, 2021
Greetings, Brookings-Harbor Students, Parents, Staff and Community Members,
The Brookings-Harbor School District (BHSD) Board of Directors, recently passed a resolution urging Governor Brown to prioritize the return of local control to our elected school board, and all school boards serving communities in Oregon, in matters relating to COVID-19 control strategies.
Our district is currently in full in-person learning for grades K-12, while also providing online-only options for families via the Brookings-Harbor Online Academy. Our district prioritized a return to in-person learning throughout last year’s challenging school year and innovated to provide in-person, hybrid, and expanded day schedules that returned BHSD students to classrooms and kept them there ahead of the majority of schools statewide. BHSD continues to uphold this goal while keeping safety a priority with multiple layers of preventive measures and regular review of these measures to protect students, staff, and others participating in our academic and extracurricular activities.
We ask the community to continue to do their part to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, through wearing masks, maintaining physical distance, washing hands frequently, and staying home when sick or exposed. In addition, we encourage individuals to seek the knowledge they need to determine if the COVID-19 vaccine is appropriate for them. However, as the Board, we do not believe that these actions should be mandated from the state level. In our resolution, we respectfully request that Oregon Governor Kate Brown return to the promised advisory recommendations for school districts operating in the 2021-22 school year, and remove one-size-fits-all mandates that do not always make sense in our unique circumstances here on the Southern Oregon Coast.
With this resolution, our priorities continue to be to foster a high level of student success through academics as well as mental, emotional, physical, and social wellbeing; to recruit and retain high-quality staff and maintain a culture of support with opportunities for growth and development; and to intentionally build meaningful relationships with students, staff, families, and community with trust and respect to create a positive culture to invest in every student’s future. In these unprecedented times, we need the flexibility to make the right decisions to support our school communities on our own timelines.
Gratefully,
Alan Nidiffer, Chairperson
Jay Trost, Vice-Chairperson
Janece Payne, Board Member
Janell Howard, Board Member
Katherine Johnson, Board Member