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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We are in the middle of another week of social distancing without a clear end date. It is hard for all of us to adjust to this strange new reality. Despite everything, I hope you are all staying home and staying healthy, mentally and physically. I am so inspired to see all the different ways people are lifting up their families, their communities, their teachers, their health care providers, and their frontline workers. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
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No In-person School For the Rest of the Year: Yesterday, Governor Brown announced the extension of Oregon’s physical school closures through the end of the school year. She has directed school districts, community colleges, and universities to finish out the final weeks by continuing distance learning and student health and safety support remotely.
- Read the Governor's full remarks here, and watch the video by clicking on the image below.
- ODE has created a comprehensive resource page with essential COVID-19 links, links for school leaders, parents and families, and mental health support.
- Hillsboro School District has distance learning information here.
- Forest Grove School District has supplemental learning materials here.
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Graduation Guidelines: The Oregon Department of Education has released guidance to ensure that our students who have worked so hard for so many years have a chance to graduate on time. Graduation Pathways 2020 (read in full here):
- Gives students who were already on-track for graduation a passing grade, maintaining Oregon’s high credit requirements
- Directs schools to prioritize their resources to support students who need additional credits to graduate at the time of closure, who need additional support, or are at-risk and in vulnerable situations.
- Suspends essential skills and personalized learning requirements
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U.S. Department of Education: States can use a waiver request process to repurpose existing federal funding to pay for new technology and teacher training associated with online learning.
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Click on the image to watch the Governor's April 8 Press Conference
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Restaurants Closed Until Further Notice: On Tuesday, Governor Brown extended her order to close all dine-in restaurants and food places until further notice by releasing a new Executive Order. Read the full EO here.
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Second Round of Hillsboro Emergency Support Grants: An additional $552,000 from the City of Hillsboro will be available for small business owners. Applications reopened on Tuesday, April 7th on the city website.
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Drive-Thru Testing in Washington County: In collaboration with OHSU, Virginia Garcia Medical Center has set up a drive-thru testing site at the Hillsboro Stadium. For now, the testing is by appointment only, and is conducted Mon/Wed/Fri from 9am - 4pm.
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Introducing the Esperanza Fund: Bienestar created the Esperanza Fund to support families in their community to pay for basic necessities. If you would like to contribute, go to Bienestar’s website.
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Status Report: As of last night there were 1,239 cases in Oregon, with 295 cases in Washington County.
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Click on image to be redirected to OHA's coronavirus page
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Go Outside: The outside world is full of educational opportunities, but most importantly, it is an opportunity to get fresh air and exercise, and take a break. If you have a yard or other outdoor space encourage your kids to play there. If not, take your children for walks, or to community greenspace, but make sure to keep a distance from others and stay off all park/play equipment.
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Be Patient with Yourself: You may be working from home and balancing a new role as your students learn at home. This is extremely difficult for you and your children. You will probably be less effective at work, and so will they. This is a time to let go of perfectionism and just do your best.
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Set a schedule: this will help maintain a sense of normalcy for you and your kids, regular lunch times and breaking up the day into blocks or periods will help you and your student function.
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Turn off devices: Students are learning virtually, but remember to take a break from the screens. Good old fashioned conversation is just as important.
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Ask for help: reach out to other parents, or your child’s teacher to see what is working and what isn’t, it may take time to find your stride, but our community is in this together.
The Oregon Health Authority recently gave me an update on when we can loosen our social distancing measures. Our statewide effort to limit the virus’ spread is keeping cases at a manageable level, but maintaining that level is dependent on what we do next. We need to know a lot more about the virus, and have a lot more health resources before we can lift restrictions. OHA’s recommendations depend on more than just the number of cases; if we lift restrictions without adequate information and resources, we may just see another spike in cases.
Information we need:
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Immunity: Are those who have recovered from the disease immune from getting it again? If so, how long will that immunity last? Will immunity be lost as soon as the virus mutates?
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Seasonality: Will transmission reduce when the weather warms? If so, how much? How or when would it likely return? Some coronaviruses are seasonal, and some are not.
Resources we need:
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Testing capacity: we need to test widely and often to track flare-ups.
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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to:
- Conduct the testing safely.
- Enable non-urgent medical procedures to resume.
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Human capacity: Staff is needed to do testing and immediate contact tracing of every person who tests positive
COVID 19 has caused a lot of fear in our community, and some have responded with violence and hate. This has no place in Oregon. During the COVID 19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that we have each other's backs. If you witness acts of violence, intimidation or threats against members of our community, or if you have experienced a bias incident yourself, you can report it to the Attorney General’s non-emergency hotline 1-844-924-BIAS(2427) or by using their online reporting tool. If you are someone else is in immediate danger, dial 911.
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Hillsboro “Food 2 You”: This program delivers essential food to the people in Hillsboro who can’t access food pantries and need the assistance.
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Forest Grove Food Delivery: Read this list of Forest Grove restaurants offering food delivery.
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Food Delivery: Virginia Garcia Primary Care Community Health Outreach workers in Hillsboro partnered with the Hillsboro Senior Center to deliver non-perishable food boxes to patients in need. Care teams identified patients and families that they believe are at most risk. The food is delivered on Tuesdays; twenty-eight boxes were delivered last week.
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Food Banks:
- The Cornelius Clinic will be holding their food bank every Tuesday in the lot of Centro Cultural beginning at 2:30pm.
- The Hillsboro Clinic will be holding their food bank at the Hillsboro Friends Church on April 10, 2020 at 12pm.
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US Department of Agriculture: To assist farmers and ranchers during this time, the USDA added flexibilities for crop insurance. Read the press release here.
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Farmer Relief Fund: The American Farmers Trust’s Relief Fund will award farmers with up to $1,000 of cash grants to help farms continue to operate and provide food as we get through this crisis. Read more and apply here.
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National Center for Farmworker Health: The NCFH has a resource page with information about how COVID-19 affects migrant farmworkers here. It includes information in Spanish and indegenous languages.
Employers and Employees
The following list of resources is from Oregon’s Secretary of State’s Office. The fastest way to get in touch with the SOS team is by emailing business.sos@oregon.gov, using the “Need Help?” button found on most state agency websites or visiting www.oregon.gov/smallbusiness.
Education Links
Local Government
Utilities Assistance
Food and Housing Assistance
With Sen. Frederick, Sen. Roblan, Rep Alonso Leon, Rep Meek just last month
Yours truly,
 Representative Susan McLain
House District 29
email: Rep.SusanMcLain@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1429
address: 900 Court St NE, H-376, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mclain
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