Vaccines or testing required for staff
District is 1st in Montco to require survey on status
UPPER MERION >> A vote by the Upper Merion Area School Board on Monday night could set a precedent for school districts across Montgomery County.
Upper Merion’s board voted unanimously to require that all district employees either be vaccinated or tested regularly for COVID-19, a ruling other area school districts could be eyeing.
“The District has taken this position in order to maintain and provide a safe environment for all of those that we serve,” Upper Merion’s school district said in a statement Wednesday.
“The Upper Merion Area School District takes this responsibility very seriously and has decided that it is important to put the above mentioned items in place immediately,” the district said.
The resolution adopted by Upper Merion modifies the district’s health and safety plan to survey all active employees to request their vaccination status. Effec
tive “as soon as practicable” afterward, all existing employees and newly hired employees who work for the district during the 2021-22 school year “who are unvaccinated will be mandatorily required to wear masks on school property while delivering their educational services or extra duty responsibilities,” and will be required to be tested for COVID-19 twice weekly.
“What they did mandate is participation in a survey, requiring individuals to evidence whether they’ve been vaccinated or not. That is a mandate,” district solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik told MediaNews Group in an interview Wednesday.
“What they didn’t mandate is individuals getting vaccinated. We do not believe that you have the legal authority to mandate unionized employees to get vaccinated, unless it has been bargained with the respective unions. And this has not,” he said.
Details of testing will be worked out by administration, and the district will “further explore...the requirements for masking of its employees and/ or prospective employees, as well as the masking requirements for students,” says the resolution, based on state and federal recommendations.
An exemption system will be established for employees who have medical or religious objections to either being tested or being required to wear a mask, and similar exemptions would also be put in place for students, said the district. Employees who do not comply “will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including discharge,” per terms of their collective bargaining agreements, “as acts of noncompliance will be viewed as insubordination.”
“What Upper Merion did follows the model of what New York City did with all of its employees, including teachers, requiring them to respond to a survey,” Sultanik said.
“We’re not forcing people to get vaccinated. Obviously, you have less rigmarole you have to go through under the circumstances, but you’re not forced to get vaccinated,” he said.
The resolution applies to teachers and employees on school property and has been supported by Upper Merion’s unions representing teachers and support staff, according to the attorney. When asked whether other districts he represents as solicitor are having similar conversations, Sultanik said he could not say due to attorney-client privilege.
“This is a relatively recent development, so it would not surprise me that districts would talk about this as an option,” he said.
In Upper Merion, “generally, what we have seen is that there has been widespread employee and public support for the action they took.”
Other districts Sultanik and his firm represent, including several in Montgomery County, have been discussing the return to school and safety plans for students and staff, while monitoring the changing state and federal rules around vaccinations.
“In most districts, it’s the teachers that have the highest vaccination rates. The vaccination rates are generally less among the support staff,” he said.
North Penn School Board president Tina Stoll said Wednesday that she and the board “have indeed seen the news story on Upper Merion’s school board’s decision to require vaccinations or testing for their staff,” and are also watching reports of the delta variant of COVID-19 and increasing cases in the county.
“Our goal from day one has been to make the health and safety of our students and staff the utmost priority in our decision making process,” she said.
“We will continue to do so by closely monitoring the recommendations from the CDC and the Montgomery County Board of Health and, if necessary, making revisions to our Health and Safety Plan. I think everyone can agree that we want to have as normal a school year as we possibly can,” she said.
The county health department last week issued guidance to school districts recommending universal masking in line with a similiar statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parents showed up at a recent North Penn board committee meeting to comment on whether masking for students should be optional, as the current plan stipulates, or be mandatory when schools reopen in the fall.
The Reporter has also contacted leadership of the Souderton Area School Board to ask if they have discussed the Upper Merion mandate, and that board had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 10 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street in Lansdale; for more information visit www. NPenn.org.
The Souderton Area board next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 26 with various board committees meeting at 6:30 p.m. on August 11, both at the district offices at 760 Lower Road in Franconia. For more information visit www.SoudertonSD.org.