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Friends and Neighbors,
Governor Updates
Governor Kate Brown Announces Comprehensive Coronavirus Testing Plan for Long-Term Care Facilities
On Tuesday, Governor Kate Brown announced that Oregon will be implementing a comprehensive coronavirus testing plan to protect the residents and staff of long-term care facilities, prioritizing those facilities at greatest risk for outbreaks.
Public health officials will also be working with long-term care facilities to implement recommended best practices for ongoing monitoring, including:
- Conducting active daily screenings for fever and COVID-like symptoms for all residents and staff, providing testing for any residents or staff with even mild symptoms. Residents who test positive should be isolated.
- Providing testing for all staff every month on a staggered weekly basis, with the goal of having 25% of all staff tested each week over the course of the month.
- Providing testing for all residents and staff if there is a single new confirmed or suspected resident case or a confirmed staff case, and retesting weekly until at least 14 days pass without a new positive result. Residents who test positive and are symptomatic should be isolated.
- Testing all new residents prior to admission or readmission, including transfers from hospitals or other health care facilities. Even new residents who test negative should be quarantined for 14 days.
The state’s ability to quickly test all long-term care facility residents and staff is partially dependent on the federal government’s supply of necessary testing materials to Oregon. Governor Brown released a letter today pressing federal officials for more testing swabs and transport media for testing samples. According to federally-reported figures, Oregon has received far less assistance in terms of testing supplies than many other states, hampering the state's ability to expand testing capacity.
Find more information on the new plan here.
Education Updates
Ready Schools, Safe Learners
ODE has released Ready Schools, Safe Learners Guidance designed for school leaders that puts forward the requirements and recommendations school districts will use to design and open schools across the state in the fall. This guidance describes what we know now, with an understanding that we will all need to navigate the state’s evolving efforts to mitigate COVID-19. As part of that work, we will regularly release updated versions of the guidance based on feedback. We deeply appreciate the comments from over 8,000 parents in the last few months, and we used those comments to inform the development of the guidance. Families are encouraged to share suggestions on how to further improve the guidance with us using this survey.
ODE’s focus is on the Safe Reentry of Students and Staff to School. We have and will continue to work closely with the Oregon Health Authority to develop and update requirements and recommendations for school districts that meet our obligations for health, safety, equity, and quality instruction across the state. Oregon Health Authority epidemiologists helped create and vet this guidance, and this collaboration ensures that your school leaders have the critical information they need so that school doors are open and ready to welcome students in the fall.
For the 2020-21 school year, each and every public school will work under the direction of the school district to develop an Operational Blueprint for Reentry that meets the requirements outlined in the guidance while tailoring their approach for their own students, staff, and community. Through this process, each school must also determine whether they will teach all students on-site, teach all students through distance learning, or utilize a hybrid model that combines both approaches. Before the beginning of the school year, the local school board must review each school’s plan and make it available to the community on the district website.
Visit the Ready Schools, Safe Learners website for more information.
  Graduation Celebrations
This week marked the last week of the, very challenging, 2019-2020 school year for Hillsboro School District. I was fortunate to be able to cheer on some of the high school seniors as they participated in the drive-through graduations hosted by Hillsboro School District. I waited on the sidewalk by the entrance and showed my pride for these seniors. What an outstanding job the schools, administrators, staff and parents did to make each one of these seniors feel celebrated and recognized for their achievement. I loved seeing the big smiles, supportive families, decorated cars, jubilant staff and all the lights, camera and action of every moment. #ProudToBeHSD
Congratulations to the 64 students who earned the State Seal of Biliteracy in 2020! Watch a video of students sharing their experience in earning this honor.
My office was especially proud to cheer on Glencoe graduating senior, Ryan Smith. Ryan has interned in my office for the past two years and he is on his way to Yale University in the Fall. Way to go Ryan!!
  Glencoe High School Graduation
  Liberty High School Graduation
Higher Education Community Conversation
Earlier this week, I hosted a Community Conversation on the future of Higher Education during COVID-19. Representatives Courtney Neron and Jeff Reardon joined, as well as Executive Director Ben Cannon from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC), President Mark Mitsui from PCC and David McDonald from Western Oregon University. It was a great conversation and community members were able to ask questions. We followed up with resources to each participant and the event was live-streamed on my legislative YouTube page and you can watch it here.
Electric School Buses
As the world of transportation continues to change, one of the key components of modernization is the electrification of our vehicles. Few vehicles are as recognizable as the yellow school bus. Many traditional bus manufacturers are working with school districts and utilities around the country to introduce electric school buses into their fleets. The transition will be incremental, but you can expect the pace to quicken in the next 3-5 years. The venerable provider Blue Bird delivered it’s first electric bus in 2018 and already has over 100 on the road today.
Grants and other assistance can bring an initial bus purchase closer to parity with diesel buses and over it’s lifetime the maintenance on an electric school bus can be up to 80% less. As vehicle to grid (V2G) technology improves, school districts can create long term plans with local utilities to work in cooperation to reduce constraints on existing electricity infrastructure. Trimet already has 5 electric buses as part of it’s fleet.
As we work to reduce green house gas emissions, electric buses can be part of the solution. For more information you can check out the non-profit group The Center for Transportation and the Environment.
Small Business Updates
Dairy Prospers After Transition to Organic, Direct Sales
Schoch Dairy and Creamery is a House District 30 small, family-run business in Helvetia. Read the following article about how Schoch Dairy has been able to continue their business during COVID-19, grow their business outreach and about their change to organic products and direct sales.
 Free Hand Sanitizer
The Hillsboro Chamber now has Free Hand Sanitizer. Bring and fill your own bottles. Limit 5 16oz bottles per person. We are open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday. They are located at 5193 NE Elam Young Parkway, Suite A, Hillsboro.
 Community Outreach
Joint Virtual Community Conversation
 RSVP here.
Food Security and Farmworker Safety Program
Oregon’s Food Security and Farmworker Safety Program provides assistance to Oregon’s agricultural producers in order to help secure Oregon’s food supply chain and protect essential agricultural workers from COVID-19 exposure and illness.
The COVID-19 emergency caused Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OR-OSHA) to issue temporary rules requiring increased field sanitation measures and more stringent labor housing and transportation regulations. The Food Security and Farmworker Safety Program provides financial assistance to comply with these increased measures during peak harvest.
Applications are now open to apply for assistance in any, or all, of the following areas:
- Housing Response
- Transportation
- Field Sanitation
Visit the Food Security and Farmworker Safety website to apply.
Basic Rights Oregon: Queer Town Hall
 Join the discussion with Black leaders when you tune in this Tuesday, June 16 at noon on YouTube Live for Basic Rights Oregon live-captioned Queer Town Hall.
Black community leaders will be sharing their work, perspectives, and experiences during ongoing protests for racial justice and the fight against police brutality, on both the local and national levels.
They will be joined by:
- Jo Ann Hardesty, Portland City Commissioner
- Alexxis M. Robinson-Woods, Program and Services Director for Bradley Angle
- Cameron Whitten, Founder of Brown Hope and the Black Resilience Fund
- Travis Nelson, RN, BSN, RN-BC; Officer, Democratic Party of Oregon; Western Director, DNC Black Caucus; Nurses For Single Payer Board Member
- Lamar Wise, Political Coordinator for Oregon AFSCME
- And more!
When you engage with the Queer Town Hall by asking a question during the livestream, you'll be entered to win a Protect Trans Kids tote bag, so tune in this Tuesday at noon!
FACT Oregon: COVID-19, Unemployment and ABLE Webinar
Are you unemployed and experience a disability? Wondering what to do next?
In this webinar, you'll learn about Unemployment Insurance, COVID stimulus funds, how they affect your benefits, and what you can do if you're worried about asset limits.
Speakers will include someone from the Oregon Unemployment Department, benefits counselors from the Work Incentives Network (WIN), and an Oregon ABLE representative.
This webinar is FREE and will be offered at 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM on Thursday, June 18, 2020.
Making A Difference
Genentech
Oregon is playing a critical role in Genentech’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are focused on protecting our 700-person-strong Oregon workforce while we research,
develop and deliver lifesaving treatments, including those related to COVID-19.
- COVID-19 Clinical Research: Genentech is investigating a number of our therapies to potentially treat patients who are severely ill with COVID-19, most notably ACTEMRA® (tocilizumab).
- Global Production in Oregon: In a remarkably accelerated time frame, despite the global pandemic, on April 30 our Oregon manufacturing site received FDA approval for additional capacity that will result in enhanced end-to-end production of our medicines in the United States.
- Roche COVID-19 Tests: In response to the pandemic, our parent company, Roche, through its subsidiary Roche Diagnostics, has been working diligently on tests to assist with the global COVID-19 response and detection.
- On March 20, Roche received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for the cobas® SARS-CoV-2 Test to detect the novel virus that causes COVID-19. The tests were made available and are in use here in Oregon.
- On May 3, Roche received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for its new serology test to detect COVID-19 antibodies. The detection of these antibodies could help indicate if a person has gained immunity against the virus and inform treatment decisions.
 Additional Resources
House District 30 Links
Federal Delegation Links
Education Links
Utilities Assistance
Food and Housing Assistance
- Governor Brown’s Executive Order 20-11: places a temporary moratorium on residential evictions for nonpayment in light of the public health emergency caused by the spread of coronavirus in Oregon. The order is effective for 90 days.
- Governor Brown's Executive Order 20-13 strengthens Governor Brown's previous ban on residential evictions, and prohibits landlords from charging tenants late fees for nonpayment of rent during the moratorium.
- Community Action.org
- Oregon Food Bank
- Meals on Wheels
 I appreciate North Plains and their community-building activities! I was happy to be able to join their celebration parade to honor elementary students and high school seniors. Participating in this event brought happy memories of growing up in Gales Creek. Our elementary school was the central gathering place for so many fun events. On Wednesday night, North Plains residents lined the sidewalks with homemade signs, fun costumes, bubbles, noise-makers (well, the noise-makers may have just from been me 😉) and water-fun. #NorthPlainsStrong
Be good to yourself and each other. ❤
Onward & Upward,
 Capitol Phone: 503-986-1430
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-487, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.JaneenSollman@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/sollman
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