Hazardous wildfire air kills start to school year and student meal services in Oregon and Washington

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, and the Southwest Washington Clean Air Agency have since issued an air quality advisory through Thursday.

While rain is forecast throughout the week up north near Washington’s Puget Sound region, light rain in western Oregon is forecast as far away as Friday.

Some Washington and Oregon school districts have delayed online and in-person instruction for the majority of the week in light of potential power outages or related to ongoing wildfires and thick smoke.

In Pierce County, Wash., the Orting School District ended on-site instruction as well as meal pick-ups at Orting Middle School. Online instruction and meal delivery will continue, the district announced Monday.

Puget Sound area private schools including Bellevue Montessori School and the French American School Puget Sound have both closed due to air quality, but online classes will be held as scheduled.

The Vancouver School District has closed all facilities as well as in-person and grab-and-go meal service will be canceled. Remote instruction will continue for students.

In southwestern Washington’s Cowlitz County, the Kelso School District began classes remotely on Monday as scheduled despite canceling meal pickup and delivery.

Up north in Oregon’s Multnomah County, smoky skies closed the David Douglas and Gresham-Barlow school districts through Wednesday. Meal services are expected to resume later in the week.

Meal service and in-person instruction was also closed in Oregon’s fire-threatened Canby and North Clackamas school districts.

Oregon State University also remained closed on Monday due to air quality.

Thousands of poor Oregon and Washington families depend on school meal services every year.

A 2018 report out of the Oregon State University found that 12.9 percent of Oregonians were food insecure while another 5.4 percent of Oregonians were regarded as having “very low food security.”

The report defined food insecurity as having no “consistent access” to adequate food and very low food security as severely abnormal eating patterns.

Food insecure Oregonians made up a quarter of renters statewide, the report showed.

Oregonian renters face more uncertainty as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has not extended the statewide moratorium on residential evictions ahead of its September 30 expiration date.

In Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee extended the state’s similar eviction moratorium through October.

In 2018, the Washington Department of Health released a study which found around 12 percent of the state’s residents between 2014 and 2016 were food insecure. That amounts to roughly 912,000 people in Washington.

Another 5 percent had very low food security or hungry compared to 13 percent and 5 in the country, the study showed.

Of those who reduced or skipped meals that year in Washington, American Indian or Alaska Natives made up 26 percent while Pacific Islanders and Black residents made up 20 percent and 19 percent, according to the DOH study.

The news comes after Seattle Public Schools reported on Friday that fewer than half of its 55,000 registered students logged onto the district’s online systems since the soft start of fall classes last week.

About 25,000 students have logged into their computer systems so far, according to the district’s Lead Media Relations Specialist Tim Robinson.

On Friday, Robinson said the attendance numbers probably do not reflect any serious IT issues.

“If any families reach out to us about connectivity issues, we will work to solve any problems,” Robinson said.

The first week of school was meant to act as an orientation instructing students knew how to use the district’s online learning systems.

During a school board meeting Thursday, board members expressed their concerns. One board member proposed looking at patterns of attendance and seeing whether the issues are with individual teachers, schools, or “something we need to tackle as a district.”

District officials are working to align expectations for attendance with all teachers and staff, and say they’ll build guidance for families.

The Seattle Public Schools joins dozens of districts throughout the Pacific Northwest inn conducting classes remotely for the duration of the current school year or until COVID-19 transmission rates fall to significantly safer levels.

COVID-19 cases in Washington total 79,826 while deaths from the virus now number 1,991, according to DOH data on Saturday.

Smoke is expected to blanket the skies up and down the American West Coast for the near-future. While large wildfires in northwestern Washington are now close to being largely contained, wildfires in western Oregon remained virtually uncontrolled on Monday.