The districts that have employees scheduled to be vaccinated include 80 for Triad Local Schools, 110 for Graham Local Schools, 50 for Mechanicsburg Exempted Village Schools, 80 for West Liberty-Salem Local Schools and 120 for the Madison-Champaign Educational Service Center, according to the Champaign Health District.
Champaign County school employees were not initially scheduled for vaccines this week , but Health Commissioner Gabe Jones said the health district “received more doses than we were originally anticipating.”
He said the health district has also partnered with Mercy Health Urbana Hospital to pool doses and this has also attributed to an increase in vaccines.
“With these doses we are able to get a majority of the schools their first dose, which is important to keeping our students in the classroom where they learn best, while still operating clinics for our seniors and those with a developmental or intellectual disability and certain health conditions,” Jones said.
School districts in Clark County will not be receiving the vaccine next week, according to the Clark County Combined Health District.
“Clark County will receive the 2,700 doses for K-12 employees but we do not know when. We will communicate with school administrations when we know the date we will be receiving the vaccine,” the health district said in a post to its Facebook page.
Jones said the health district will be administering 400 doses and will be able to draw extra doses out of Pfizer vials.
“We should have enough to get everyone who the schools have scheduled. We also have a standby list should we get even more extra doses drawn,” he said.
Graham will have approximately half of its staff get the vaccine as there are about 230 employees, Superintendent Brad Silvus said.
“We are glad to be able to get this for our staff that want the vaccine,” he said.
Triad has a total of 109 employees and over half will get the vaccine, including 68 employees and 13 of their spouses or parents who are over the age of 65, Superintendent Vickie Hoffman said. She said 15 staff members and 13 spouses or parents are also on the waiting list to be vaccinated.
“It was 100% their decision,” she said. “We stressed that this is an individual decision and that each person should reach out to their healthcare provider to help make the decision that is best for them.”
The district surveyed staff and regular substitutes in December to ask who did or did not want the vaccine, Hoffman said. They also offered staff members to bring spouses or parents that were over the age of 65 who were from the 1a or 1b tier of the vaccination list.
Patrick Johnson, an Online Learning Coordinator at Triad who has worked in the district for 15 years, said he believes this is the right step.
“I feel it is the best way to protect myself, my family, my school and community amidst the pandemic,” he said.
“I appreciate the support the Triad community has provided the school throughout the entire pandemic with our efforts to continue to meet the educational needs of our students,” he added.
Urbana City School District employees are scheduled to be vaccinated next Friday.
The district has about 130 employees who have registered to be vaccinated, according to Superintendent Charles Thiel.
“Although this is only the first step, we are happy to be able to begin the process of having interested staff members be able to get the vaccine. We have a number of staff members who have health conditions, which may cause long-term issues if they end up with the virus,” Thiel said
Staff and personnel at 500 K-12 schools are scheduled to receive their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine next week as Ohio continues to expand vaccination efforts.
Under Phase 1B, K-12 staff and Ohioans ages 70 and older will be eligible for the vaccine as of Monday.
All remaining districts that signed up for the vaccine will know by the end of the week when they are scheduled to receive it, Gov. Mike DeWine said.
“Our goal is try to get every child back in school by March 1,” the governor said.
Vaccine clinics for school staff will be separate from clinics for seniors to keep the two groups from competing with each other.
The state hopes to have about 100,000 vaccines available for the elderly and approximately 55,000 for school personnel each week, the governor said.
“We’ve tried to make this simple for K-12 staff to get vaccinated,” DeWine added. “Most K-12 staff in a county will be vaccinated within seven days. The goal is to maximize the capacity of local vaccination partners.”
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