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Contra Costa County Education Leaders Push to Prioritize Teacher Vaccinations
Education leaders from Contra Costa County school districts, including West Contra Costa Unified School District, sent a joint letter to top county officials on Monday urging them to prioritize school district education workers for the COVID-19 vaccine.
In the two-page letter, the 14 school board presidents said Contra Costa County supervisors and Contra Costa Health Services need to immediately ensure all education workers have priority access to the COVD-19. The letter also called for a clear plan and notification on how education workers receive the vaccine. To read the letter, please click here.
WCCUSD Board President Mister Phillips advocated that Contra Costa County school districts join together to amplify the need for the COVID-19 vaccine for school personnel to accelerate the opportunity to reopen schools as it became safe to do so.
“There’s a reason public schools are part of the emergency response network," Phillips said in a release issued by the Contra Costa County School Board Association. "Let us do our part to help vaccinate school employees like school districts in other counties.”
The letter also states that priority should be given to education workers who have been reporting to in-person work and that vaccinating education workers will help school districts finalize return to school plans.
Leaders concluded the letter with, "Vaccinating school employees, immediately, will greatly help our public schools continue to provide distance learning, provide crucial community support, and safely reopen or keep open our schools."
Everyone in WCCUSD wants to return safely to in-person instruction. The District and school board have been exploring and thinking about ways to a return to in-person instruction that is safe.
We are hosting the second COVID-19 and School Study session at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 3, to continue to learn and discuss what the current science and data reflect. The study session is also our opportunity to start to talk and think about how we further prepare the systems, structures, and protocols that welcome students, families, and staff back to campuses that keep the entire community safe.
The push to partner on vaccinations is essential and shows the District’s and the Board’s commitment to WCCUSD employees’ safety as a critical pathway to returning. The current County Public Health focus is dedicating resources to vaccinating those above the age of 65. The District’s hope is that a path is created to allow school districts to become partners in distributing the vaccination to accelerate the impact on communities like ours that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and have the least access to medical care.
The study session features Harvard experts and a presentation, review, and status of WCCUSD schools and facilities, and an overview of the December Return to School Community survey.
Join us at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday via Zoom bit.ly/wccusdcovid19schools.