SAISD leader: Vaccinate teachers
America’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations has not prioritized educators even under government mandates that schools stay open amid pandemic surges, a nationwide panel that included San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said Wednesday.
Martinez and four other superintendents from across the country made a plea for federal officials to accelerate vaccine supplies and urged states to include teachers and school staffers at the front of the line.
“We cannot emphasize enough how important it is that all of our school staffs are prioritized across the country for vaccine distribution so that our schools can be open and so our children can get the academic support they need,” Martinez said during the virtual panel.
It was hosted by Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan network of superintendents and state education officials that advocates for education policies. Martinez chairs its board. The other superintendents on the call were: Robert Runcie, Broward County Public Schools in Florida, Susan Enfield of Highline Public Schools in Washington, Sharon Contreras of Guilford County Schools in North Carolina, and Millard House II of the Clarksville-montgomery County School System in Tennessee.
Almost all SAISD employees — 99 percent — are working on campuses and 30 percent of students have returned for on-campus learning. SAISD has been able to control its in-person population by gradually phasing in students with the greatest needs.
Martinez has been part of local movements to pressure Gov. Greg Abbott to categorize teachers as essential workers. Abbott has publicly supported the idea of ranking teachers as front-line workers and providing them early access to vaccines, but educators were not included in the groups that currently get priority.
SAISD is in the process of surveying employees so that when vaccines are available to the district, they can have a line of educators who fit other early-access criteria ready to receive them.
Martinez said he has offered the district’s facilities as distribution sites to local health authorities when more vaccines arrive. His nurses — almost all of whom have received the vaccine — would be able to work weekends to help facilitate, he said.