All San Joaquin school employees to receive COVID-19 vaccine

San Joaquin County school district, private and charter school employees will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine through the rest of February and early March, the San Joaquin County Office of Education said in a letter Thursday.

In a letter obtained by The Record, sent to all San Joaquin County school district employees by Jane Steinkamp, the assistant superintendent of education services at the San Joaquin County Office of Education, San Joaquin Public Health Services has authorized the SJCOE to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and hold vaccination clinics for San Joaquin school employees on Stockton campuses.

According to the letter, vaccination clinics will be open to all private and public school employees in the county, and will be distributed in a priority-based order beginning with the oldest group of employees. The first group eligible for the vaccine will receive an invitation on Feb. 17 to register for an appointment. The second-oldest age group will receive its invitation to register on Feb. 18.

All-day vaccination dates will begin on Feb. 24, and will continue on Feb. 25, March 3 and March 11, in addition to a half-day clinic on Feb. 19. According to the letter, the clinics will take place at the San Joaquin County Office of Education Wentworth Education Center, with school nurses across the county administering the vaccine.

“As we all have learned throughout the pandemic, plans may change,” Steinkamp wrote in the letter. “We thank you for your patience, flexibility and understanding. As educators, it is our goal that all classrooms in the county will be able to open to provide in-person instruction. With every vaccine administered to a school employee, we move closer to that goal.”

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System said this week that teachers in the state are retiring in the highest numbers in more than a decade, many of them due to the COVID19 pandemic, the Sacramento Bee reported.

In a survey of more than 500 teachers who retired in the second half of 2020, CalSTRS said 62% retired earlier than planned and, of those, more than half cited the challenge of teaching during a pandemic and more than one-third cited fear of exposure to COVID-19 as the reason. Teachers unions have said vaccinating school employees is essential to safely reopening schools.

In California, those who work in health care, live in long-term care facilities or are 65 and older can currently be vaccinated. Teachers, child care workers and other educators, food and agriculture workers, and law enforcement are also eligible — though many local health departments have yet to allow those groups to register for appointments, as vaccine supplies remain tight.