To Whom it may concern at Portland Public Schools:
We are the Registered Nurses who serve students at Portland Public Schools. We support our teacher colleagues in their efforts to make Portland schools safer for our students.
We are experiencing the worst outbreak of disease since the onset of the pandemic. Messaging that schools are safe–without taking the steps to make them safe–does not keep children safe.
Media statements from PPS repeatedly claim that the district is not closing schools due to the spread of COVID-19, but rather due to a shortage of staff. These statements are blaming teachers for taking sick time. But schools are short staffed because so many educators are sick or quarantined, or have families of their own to care for who are sick. Teachers should be supported rather than blamed.
While we acknowledge the value of in-person school for students, we are urgently concerned about the health and well-being of school communities during this surge in disease.
The COVID-19 prevention strategies in place today, (including vaccination and boosters for eligible persons, universal indoor masking, testing, increased ventilation, physical distancing, and respiratory hygiene) are being undermined by the low up-to-date vaccination rates among the students and the inability to maintain the required 3 feet and 6 feet distancing. The reality is that the classrooms and hallways are crowded, windows are closed, HEPA filters are too few, masking is not of medical grade, children are testing positive at a rate that is too fast to track, the tests provided are expired, and staffing in every department is stretched too thin.
This greatly concerns us as hospitalizations of children are rising dramatically in states affected earlier than Oregon by the Omicron wave.
The PPS community needs to know that there are too few school nurses and that we cannot keep up with the positive COVID cases in our schools. There are so many exposures and cases in PPS schools that, despite our best efforts, the district’s COVID-19 tracking data is woefully behind. The result is that the information that PPS leaders are using for decision-making is out of date and inaccurate.
The high student absenteeism, driven by student illness, quarantines, and parents afraid to send their children to unsafe schools is an equity problem. There is no hybrid or online learning option for thousands of students. It is clear to us that PPS either has no metrics for closing schools or that the metrics they are using are not being shared with school leadership. Many principals who know their schools are unsafe due to high levels of COVID-19 positive cases and exposures are left with no option but to continue in-person instruction despite these risks.
It is far past time for leaders to speak clearly and to not minimize a pandemic that threatens the well-being of our school communities and may overwhelm Oregon’s hospitals in a few short weeks. We all need to be clear to our families and communities about the realities we are facing within the walls of each and every school. It is only then–with transparency–that we can meet and overcome the challenges of this pandemic at its current level, together.
We call on the leadership of PPS to:
Sincerely 36 School Nurses concerned with the situation in Portland Public Schools,
Mary Johnson, RN
Terrie Johnson, RN
Cam Lam-Huckaba, RN
Wendy McMakin, RN
Betsy Cruz, RN
Jennifer Harrison, RN
Patty Locke, RN
Kathy Snader, RN
Shannon Schupp, RN, BSN
Lisa Michele Jones, RN
Susan Milholland, RN
Nicky Zimmerman, RN
Robert Nicholson, RN
Alyson Soderquist, RN
Sandra Dornfeld, RN
Christy Fawcett, RN
Tegan Leipzig, RN
Melissa Monroy , RN
Heather Godsey, RN
Keely Moon, RN
Lori Elder RN
Mary Corcoran, BSN, RN
Amie Fowler, RN
Jennifer Novack, RN
Lynn Zimmerman-Lind, RN
Trudy L Davis, RN
Deb Seymour, RN
Tram Pham, RN
Erika Wallin, RN
Lynn Delorme, RN
Jennifer Makinster, RN
Heidi Miriam Ward, RN
Laurelei Bailey, BSN, RN
Sally Wu, RN
Courtney Szper, RN
Tyler Maybury, RN