• PPS, teachers union finalize staff vaccine mandate,
The Pittsburgh Public Schools and the union that represents its staff have finalized an agreement that will require district employees to get vaccinated against or be tested weekly for COVID-19.
Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, said she planned to sign the health and safety memorandum of understanding Tuesday.
The vaccine mandate is part of a deal that builds on an agreement that the district and union reached last year regarding issues such as social distancing in classrooms, quarantine rooms in schools and other health and safety matters.
Even though Ms. Esposito-Visgitis said she planned to sign the memorandum, she said she still had some questions that needed to be answered, including an enforcement timeline.
District solicitor Ira Weiss said the school system was still working on getting the testing process in place, so staff members would have “ample time” before vaccines would become compulsory. He said the district has hired Addison, Texas-based Concentra to do testing for staff members who are not
vaccinated.
The district will allow for religious exemptions from vaccines, but those who are not inoculated must still be tested. District staff members who are vaccinated but want to be tested for COVID-19 will be able to, Mr. Weiss said.
He said the process will remain private.
The Pittsburgh Public Schools has about 4,000 employees, more than 3,000 of whom are in the union.
The only other school entity in southwestern Pennsylvania to require vaccines or regular testing for its staff is the Environmental Charter School. Accommodations will be made for employees who cannot receive the
COVID-19 vaccine for medical or religious reasons, the school said.
Aside from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Upper Merion are the only other school districts in Pennsylvania that have implemented a plan requiring teachers and staff to be vaccinated or submit to testing.
But with rising coronavirus case counts, the spread of the delta variant and the start of the school year, more schools throughout the nation are taking such actions.
All teachers in New Jersey as well as the New York City public school system, the nation’s largest, are required to get vaccinations.