SCOE HOSTS VACCINATION CLINIC FOR EDUCATORS
It has not been an easy 12 months since Solano County schools closed to stop the spread of COVID-19. But as the county moves through the first phase of the vaccination rollout, a little bit of hope arrived Friday.
The Solano County Office of Education (SCOE) hosted a vaccination clinic for employees in schools throughout the county that have already opened or registered with the California Department of Public Health’s Safe Schools for All website. Approximately 1,800 employees from throughout Solano were invited to sign up for vaccines and 1,000 made appointments to receive them, according to Lisette Estrella-Henderson, Solano’s superintendent of schools.
She was thrilled with the turnout.
“It feels amazing,” Estrella-Henderson
said. “We are so happy to be a part of (Solano County) Public Health’s effort to vaccinate our educators. We know that there’s a limited amount of vaccine, and this is just a start, but we’re looking forward to supporting Public Health in getting it done.”
Estrella-Henderson said SCOE worked with Solano Public Health to facilitate Friday’s mass vaccination and sent out 1,800 invitations that were prioritized based on those that had registered on the CDPH website as providing in-person, hybrid or small-group instruction. These consisted mainly of private and charter schools which have been open since the fall, although employees at public school districts like Vacaville Unified were also eligible.
Estrella-Henderson said approximately 20 percent of TK-12 educators in Solano showed up to receive
the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine Friday. SCOE’s role was to provide logistical and data collection to support vaccination planning for its educators. So far, she said the process was going smoothly and called it a “Herculean effort” to coordinate.
“It is going very well today,
certainly due to the experience of Public Health Department with their medical provider partners and volunteers,” she said. “It’s gone very seamlessly today. We’re looking forward to continuing to support Public Health’s efforts.”
The medical partners in
cluded Kaiser Permanente, NorthBay Healthcare and Medic Ambulance, all of whom had staff on hand to administer the vaccines.
Vaccination recipients, such as SCOE special education preschool teacher Angela Jung, said the process was efficient.
“I didn’t even feel it,” she said. “I feel fine afterwards, no reaction.”
Jung went back to in-person teaching for a hybrid model back in November,
so she has been waiting to get vaccinated for a while.
“This is just one more level of protection for us,” she said. “Getting this vaccine is not just protecting myself but also protecting my students.”
Carla Welinske, a secretary at Callison Elementary School, said she has been working on-campus off and on since schools closed in March, including handing out Chromebooks and supplies to students and assisting with graduation. She is eager to see schools open back up as she is the parent of two high schoolers.
“They’re doing well, but
I see the consequences of them not getting out of the house, being on computers all day long,” she said.
Estrella-Henderson said the clinic was beneficial for schools that have already opened.
“What it will allow us to do is to provide vaccines to more educators so that we can continue our endeavor to serve students,” she said.
Those who received the vaccine will be coming back March 19 for their second dose.