Health official urges district to mandate vaccines
Tentative plan would require inoculations for faculty, students ages 12 and older
“Fully vaccinated students are also not required to quarantine at home after an exposure, as long as they remain asymptomatic. In this way vaccination can prevent significant disruptions in a child’s education.”
— Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa County public health officer
Contra Costa County’s top health official Friday formally recommended that West Contra Unified proceed with its tentative plan to require students at least 12 years old to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Dr. Chris Farnitano, the county’s public health officer, sent a letter to the West Contra Costa School District expressing “strong support” for a vaccine mandate like the one proposed by a district trustee.
A resolution calling for a requirement that faculty, staff and students 12 and older be inoculated was supposed to be considered by the district’s school board at a special meeting next week, but Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst canceled the session late Thursday.
In an interview Thursday, county Supervisor John Gioia said that Farnitano had told him he planned to make the recommendation to all school districts in the county.
But Contra Costa Health Services clarified Friday that Farnitano is “not issuing a blanket recommendation for all schools in the county at this point.”
Will Harper, a spokesman for Contra Costa Health Services, said Farnitano addressed only West Contra Costa Unified because it “had an actual proposal on the table. … If other school districts come up with a proposal, he can weigh in on those.”
The Alameda County Public Health Department doesn’t intend to advise school districts there to adopt vaccine mandates, either. Department spokeswoman Neetu Balram said in an email that vaccine requirements for students historically have been driven by the state.
Santa Clara County health officials couldn’t be reached to comment about whether they intend to offer any mandate recommendations, and a spokesperson for the San Mateo Health Department said he’d have a statement about that next week.
In his letter to West Contra Costa Unified, Farnitano urges the district to go ahead and issue a mandate, saying vaccinated students are “less likely to miss school due to the need to stay home for isolation or symptoms from an infection.”
“Fully vaccinated students are also not required to quarantine at home after an exposure, as long as they remain asymptomatic,” Farnitano’s letter
adds. “In this way vaccination can prevent significant disruptions in a child’s education.”
Gioia said that with Farnitano’s recommendation the district would be able to establish the vaccine mandate immediately if it chooses to.
That’s because the school board previously authorized district officials to adopt whatever vaccine recommendations state or local health officials make without its approval. Gioia said he was told that in a phone call by Hurst and board President Mister Phillips. It’s unclear, however, when the district actually would issue a vaccine mandate.
School board trustee Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy had written a resolution he intended to introduce at the now-canceled Tuesday board meeting calling for every eligible student and staff member to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31.
If the resolution was approved then, the district might have become the first in the Bay Area to issue a vaccine mandate. Faculty and staff with medical or religious reasons for not getting the shots would have been exempted, as would students for medical reasons only.
But in an internal email Thursday, Hurst said there were some technical problems with the resolution that needed to be resolved first, such as how the district would provide distance-learning opportunities for students who didn’t comply with the vaccine mandate. For that reason, he canceled Tuesday’s meeting.