‘Takes the edge off a little’
Town private school educators among those getting vaccines
GREENWICH — Samantha McCoy, a teacher, became eligible for her COVID-19 vaccine March 1. On March 2, she had an appointment.
And within a half-hour of arriving at the Greenwich Health Department’s clinic, she had received a shot. By that time, an appointment for her second dose was already secured for several weeks later in Danbury, close to her home.
“The day I was there, everything just ran so smoothly,” said McCoy, who is chair of the middle school history department, a history teacher and cocoordinator for EIJ Programs at Sacred Heart Greenwich, a K through 12 all
girls private school in Greenwich.
Like other public and private school educators throughout the state, McCoy became eligible for the coronavirus vaccine thanks to a revised rollout plan announced by Gov. Ned Lamont in late February. The plan made eligible all residents above the age of 55, as well as teachers and other school staff, as of March 1.
In the initial hours after the expansion of eligibility, online portals such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Administration Management System and the Yale New Haven Health System’s scheduling site, many residents reported difficulty in navigating the systems and finding a dearth of appointments.
“The first day was a little choppy, which I think was true for everybody,” said Thomas Philip, head of Brunswick School.
But those early issues seem to have been mostly remedied.
Greenwich Public Schools reported last week that 91 percent of its eligible staff had either been vaccinated, had an appointment scheduled or had opted out. And Greenwich’s private schools, too, are making good progress in getting their teachers and staff vaccinated against COVID-19.
Sacred Heart couldn’t share statistics on what percentage of its employees had chosen to be vaccinated, said Haley Sonneland, director of public relations for the school.
But as of Monday, nearly all of the teachers who had opted in to the vaccine had either been vaccinated or had an appointment scheduled, she said, according to the school’s human resources department.
the school has worked closely with Caroline Baisley, director of the Greenwich Department of Health, to schedule teacher appointments, Sonneland said.
Similarly, the town Department of Health set up an after-school clinic last week at Greenwich Country Day School, at which more than half of the school’s employees received their first dose, according to Director of Strategic Communications Kim Eves. Those employees have follow-up appointments scheduled in a few weeks for their second doses. Others are looking elsewhere.
“Many others had already received the vaccine through scheduled appointments attained through New York residency or age-eligibility, including through VAMS,” Eves said. “A few remaining employees will be vaccinated this week at Greenwich DoH clinics.”
The same is true at Greenwich Academy, according to Director of Communications and Marketing Asha Marsh, whose teachers will be vaccinated in Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and wherever else appointments are available through VAMS and the Yale New Haven site.
Philip, at Brunswick School, which has for the past several weeks hosted a vaccination clinic in its field house, estimated that at least 30 percent his staff had received their first dose of the vaccine. Despite the presence of the clinic on campus — which he said Brunswick was happy to host despite some minor disruption — Philip said many of the school’s teachers and staff members were going elsewhere to get their first dose.
Most who were interested in receiving the vaccine, Philip said, had been scheduled to do so.
And for many, getting the vaccine is an important step toward normalcy as the yearlong pandemic continues.
McCoy’s Sacred Heart colleague Christine Gifis, a seventh-grade lead teacher and assistant dean of students, said the process was extremely simple. According to Gifis and McCoy, their names were uploaded into the VAMS system on Friday, Feb. 26, at which point they were able to schedule an appointment. Gifis got an appointment March 1 in Fairfield, close to where she lives. Her second appointment is at the same location in early April.
“I was super excited,” Gifis said. “I guess I was anxious in the sense that I had been wanting it for so long. But I was definitely very excited, and I’m really looking forward to getting the second dose. It just takes the edge off a little.”