JOHN DAY — Grant County school districts say they are redoubling their efforts on safety protocols such as indoor masking and testing to stem the spread of COVID-19 at school events instead of hitting the pause button on extracurricular activities.

The resolve to increase pandemic protocols comes on the heels of a Jan. 3 advisory issued by state health and education officials stating that schools must either pause extracurricular activities or ensure they follow specific COVID-19 safety protocols.

According to the advisory, schools that choose to continue sports and other activities should communicate to families the potential risks posed by the surging omicron variant.

“If schools and other organizations proceed with extracurricular activities, especially as these activities move indoors and individuals are unmasked, they should expect rapid transmission of COVID-19 that will prevent students from participating in in-person learning due to isolation for those that contract COVID-19 and lengthy quarantines for those that come into close contact with infected individuals,” the advisory said.

The advisory recommends that schools that choose to hold extracurricular activities enforce mitigation strategies such as the use of face coverings indoors.

Grant School District Superintendent Bret Uptmor said Friday that the district’s goal is to continue to carry out its mitigation strategies in hopes of preventing an outbreak.

According to a Jan. 5 post on the Grant Union High School Facebook page, in addition to continuing to require face coverings indoors at its events, the school temporarily closed its concession stand and is now barring food in the gym.

Laura Thomas, Monument’s school superintendent, said her district is continuing to use physical distancing, masking and thorough cleaning while encouraging strong hygiene practices as a means to minimize, and hopefully prevent, any spread of illness.

Prairie City Superintendent Casey Hallgarth said in a Friday email that the district decided to hold extracurricular activities after discussing the matter with staff and the athletic director.

“We will work closely with our local health authority as we have been doing to make sure that if a time comes that we have to close our school or stop the extracurricular activities, we will,” Hallgarth said.

Hallgarth said he wants people to know that the school wants everyone to be and feel safe.

Masks and hand sanitizer are located at the front door at the school’s sporting events, Hallgarth said, and he said he asks that everyone mask up when attending the school’s home games.

Hallgarth said while the school has local control over this decision, the district needs to work hand in hand with the Grant County Health Department to make the best decisions for students and staff.

“The past two years that we have been dealing with this has been a rollercoaster ride,” Hallgarth said. “I honestly can’t say with confidence that Oregon schools will be in a position to have local control because of the new variants that are coming out.”

Brandon Haberly, Dayville School District’s superintendent, did not immediately respond to the Eagle’s request for comment.

Kimberly Lindsay, the county’s public health administrator, said people should be thoughtful about attending large social gatherings given the surge in COVID-19 cases and the record number of hospitalizations last week. However, she said she does not support school closures or other lockdowns.

As of Jan. 5, coronavirus cases were up 140% statewide from the previous week, according to the state health authority’s data. During the same period, an average of seven new cases per day were reported in Grant County, a 92% increase. One out of every six Grant County residents has had the virus, a total of 1,231 reported cases since the start of the pandemic.

In a Friday, Jan. 8, press conference, Oregon Health Authority officials painted a bleak picture of the next few weeks to come as the omicron variant tears across the state. That picture includes coronavirus-related staffing shortages at schools, hospitals and businesses.

At the same time, Grant County educators say they don’t want to add to the pandemic-related stress that high school students and athletes have endured over the last two years.

For his part, Uptmor said that school activities are an extension of the classroom for students.

“Our kids learn a lot in those environments,” he said. “To put them on pause would be similar to if we just close the school.”

Whether they are participating as spectators or players, he said, sports give students the opportunity to engage with their peers and make decisions based on those interactions.

“When I think about a comprehensive education system, you need to have the ability to troubleshoot and use problem-solving skills. Those aren’t just automatically taught within the distribution of our curriculums,” Uptmor said. “We try to do some of that problem-solving in the classroom, but experiences create those opportunities.”