New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Past halfway
City progresses on vaccination of teachers, other school staff
NEW HAVEN — At least 2,000 New Haven teachers and school staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19, a city health official estimated, about six weeks after schools opened for the youngest students in the district.
It means the city is more than halfway through its planned vaccination efforts for school personnel.
City Health Director
Maritza Bond said the city does not have data for the percentages of job titles of people in the city who have been vaccinated — doses that have been made available to people based on age as well as some professions, such as first responders and school and child care staff. However, a vaccination clinic at Wilbur Cross High School capable of serving 300 people per day, as well as clinics in 14
school-based health centers serving 30 people each day means that over 2,000 people mainly affiliated with schools have been vaccinated this month, she estimated.
On Friday, New Haven schools will have a half-day to increase the number of teachers who are able to receive a first dose of the vaccine before the planned re-opening of high school schools on April 5.
Dave Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said the union hopes to have a specific count of vaccinated teachers soon. He said it is difficult to get a complete count because teachers may be eligible — based on their age — to be vaccinated at a pharmacy or at one of the city’s pop-up clinics. Currently, individuals 55 and older, teachers and child care workers, and people who were eligible under prior phases, are eligible for a vaccine in the state.
Assistant Superintendent of Schools Paul Whyte said there are about 3,500 people who are included in the school district’s vaccination efforts — including bus drivers and after-school providers.
“We’ve always wanted to have our kids back,” Whyte said at a city press event this week.
On Jan. 19, the school district permitted students up to fifth grade to attend school in their buildings. On March 4, the district extended the offer to students up to eighth grade.
“We are really pleased with the reopenings since our pre-K through fifth graders we have been very successful in ensuring our positive cases are very low,” Bond said. “This phase-in approach has allowed us to be able to assess and be sure each of the phases will have the Board of Education able to make decisions.”
According to the district, since Jan. 19 there have been 94 positive COVID-19 cases in the school district of people who were present in the schools.
Rose Pudlin, director of practice transformation at Fair Haven Community Health Center, said the Wilbur Cross clinic has seen a rush of teachers around 9 a.m. every week day since it launched last Wednesday and will ordinarily see heavy traffic from teachers around 2:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, several New Haven teachers who were waiting in line for their appointments at those clinics said it was the earliest appointment they could get.
“It’s a great honor to be considered, because it’s so important to receive the vaccine,” said Ingrid Ceuvas, a bilingual education teacher at Clinton Avenue School. “It helps to know I’m more secure coming back to school.”
Cuevas said that, since returning to school one week ago, there is a lot of excitement around receiving the vaccine among her colleagues.
“I haven’t heard of anyone who doesn’t want to get vaccinated,” she said.
She estimates that about 80 percent of her students are back in the classroom, and the ones who are not generally have older parents who are at a higher risk of severe complications from contracting the COVID-19 virus.
Roger Rushworth and Paula Matei-Grysiak, colleagues in the science department at Engineering and Science University Magnet School, waited in the Wilbur Cross vaccination line together. They both teach students in eighth grade as well as several other grades in the joint middle and high school.
Rushworth, who is 54, would have narrowly missed eligibility for the vaccine under the current phase had he not been a teacher.
Although both Rushworth and Matei-Grysiak were enthusiastic about receiving a first dose of a two-dose vaccine Tuesday, Rushworth said his first week back to school was “awesome.”
“I’m a teacher, my strength is personal skills,” he said. “Online, it’s extremely hard to relay your excitement and enthusiasm.”
Matei-Grysiak estimated that about 50 percent of the students in her class have returned to the building — which adds up to about 25 percent of the total students in buildings on a given day because of district plans to allow students older than third grade to attend school in person for two days a week.
“We’re so glad they did this clinic (for teachers) so we don’t have to fight anybody else for it,” she said.