By Pepper Fisher
CLALLAM COUNTY – Governor Inslee’s order Wednesday that all schoolteachers and staff must be vaccinated by October 18 or risk losing their jobs, put added pressure on local districts just two weeks before public schools are scheduled to open.
Teachers and staff, like any other segment of the population, are not all in agreement about getting vaccinated, and the potential for some of them to take this opportunity to retire earlier than they might have planned or to move on to some other career is very real.
That’s not a good scenario for the smallest school district in Clallam County. We asked Crescent Superintendent Dave Bingham if he was concerned about losing people over this.
“I am. I think there’s a potential of, I’ll say three to five people, that may choose not to be vaccinated, and they’re, kind of, some key people around student support. And it could put us in a bind.”
Sequim Superintendent Jane Pryne is happy to be starting school with a full staff, but she too has concerns that that could change by October 18.
“I do, because we won’t know the impact of this until probably the first part of aha, maybe the middle of September to the first part of October. So we are going into the school year fully staffed, but I believe this vaccine mandate may have an impact on that. But we won’t know until we get into the school year.”
Port Angeles Superintendent Marty Brewer, who estimates 70% of his staff are already vaccinated, admits that some of the others are not too happy about the Governor’s mandate. On the other hand, there appear to be some loopholes.
“Right now, the emotions are really high, and so there are critical conversations occurring at this point in time. But really, I think a better judge of that will be about this time next week when we get more guidance and information from the state of Washington. You know, there are three avenues to go. Number one, get the vaccination. Number two, get a medical exemption. Or number three, claim a religious exemption. And we’re waiting for further guidance on the two exemptions, on just what that looks like. And as we provide that information to our employees we’ll be able to have conversations one-to-one, to determine what’s, you know, the best next step for an employee.”
It’s also important to remember that individual districts will be handling the verification process with their employees.
The ire over Covid-19 mandates extends to some parents, upset about the indoor mask mandate. The mask order applies to kids too, whenever they’re in school.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal had this message to parents.
“For those who have this passionate want to tell folks how frustrated they are, I really respect that. What they ought not do is go to school boards and ask them to do something that is not in the control of school boards, and school directors. We can take lots of criticism here. Please keep it civil. Please keep it respectful and safe. We’ve got email addresses. We get a lot of that. We respond to a lot of that. But your local school board is not making this decision, whether it’s masks or vaccines. Please, take your respectful civil discourse where it belong’s, and local school boards are not that place. Let them operate school under the law.”