LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Public and private school personnel throughout Kentucky are deciding whether they want to take a new COVID-19 vaccine, possibly in a matter of weeks, as school systems prepare extensive inoculation plans for their employees.
School districts have been asked to submit lists of all workers who want to take a COVID-19 vaccine to the Kentucky Department for Public Health by Dec. 30.
John Wright, community relations specialist for Hardin County Schools, said the district sent a survey gauging interest in taking a COVID-19 vaccine early Thursday and had received 500 responses within about 10 minutes.
About half of the staff at Oldham County Schools, which has some 2,000 employees, has replied to a similar survey so far, and Superintendent Greg Schultz says around 90% of respondents so far want a vaccine whenever the district receives its allotment of doses.
“I think part of that is we’ve been advised by the public health department that if your name is not on that roster, you definitely will not get the vaccine,” Schultz said. “So we’ve urged people to, if they are on the fence, say yes for now and then if they need to take their name off later, at least that is their option.”
The push to identify those who want to take COVID-19 vaccines comes as school systems throughout Kentucky finish the first half of the 2020-21 school year and prepare to resume in-person instruction in January, most of them for the first time since November or earlier.
Gov. Andy Beshear ordered public and private schools to close their classrooms amid an escalation of COVID-19 cases in November. At the time, 91 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts had already transitioned to distance learning because of high coronavirus incidence rates in their counties.
Beshear has said schools can again offer in-person instruction in January if their counties have high COVID-19 transmission rates as long as they implement a stringent hybrid learning plan, though the Kentucky Department for Public Health has recommended delaying such reopening plans until at least Jan. 11.
Teachers and school employees will be among the first groups to receive COVID-19 vaccines behind frontline health workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities, and district leaders are also developing plans for distributing vaccine doses once they receive their allotments.
Jefferson County Public Schools, which has been closed since mid-March, is in talks with the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness about holding a drive-thru vaccination effort, Superintendent Marty Pollio said this week. The district needs at least 10,000 doses for teachers and staff in elementary schools before gradually reopening schools starting with students in preschool through third grade, he said.
The Louisville health department declined an interview request, saying plans with JCPS were still under development.
Leisa Schulz, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Louisville, said Catholic schools in Jefferson County are also consulting with the health department about the best way to administer COVID-19 vaccines once they are available.
Archdiocese schools outside of Jefferson County are also conferring with their local health departments, she said.
“As I understand it, the next step is for us to find a way of doing distribution,” Schulz said, noting that Catholic school leaders are surveying teachers and staff about their interest in taking a vaccine. “Again, we’ve not gotten that far down the road.”
“I think that’s been one of the things that we’ve learned since March,” she said. “We’re having to do things step-by-step whereas in the past you might’ve had clearer knowledge and understanding of what the future holds so you could make those specific plans.”
Norton Healthcare began administering COVID-19 vaccines to frontline workers at its five hospitals across Louisville, Ky., on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020.
When Hardin County Schools receives its shipments of COVID-19 vaccines, the first doses will be reserved for those with underlying health issues, older employees, and staff who have regular contact with many students, particularly students with special needs, Wright said.
A working group convened by Superintendent Teresa Morgan and representatives of every staffing area has met to discuss the district’s vaccination plans, he said.
Columbia-based Cumberland Family Medical Center, which provides nurses for the district, has offered to help administer vaccines once doses arrive, Wright said.
“We definitely plan to use Cumberland Health to help us with that process,” he said. “We just don’t know how yet just because we haven’t gotten to that stage.”
Schultz, Oldham County’s superintendent, said the district is still developing plans for distributing COVID-19 vaccines, including which employees will receive the first doses.
“We just want to ensure that anybody that wants to get the vaccination will get in the queue to get it and that we provide the time for them to do so, we provide the support for them to do so and we come up with a structure that makes it as seamless as possible,” Schultz said.
Pictured: Dr. Jason Smith, Chief Medical Officer at UofL Health gets a COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 14, 2020. Smith signed up to be the first medical worker at the hospital to receive the vaccine.
Those interviewed by WDRB News say they are unsure when their doses of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive.
“It’s going to be an ongoing or a rolling process that not everyone is going to be able to receive this all at once,” Schulz said. “I think what we take great consolation and have confidence in are the existing mitigation and health and safety protocols that we currently have in place to resume in-person instruction.”
During Tuesday’s Jefferson County Board of Education meeting, Pollio estimated JCPS will get its share of coronavirus vaccines between the third week of January and the first week of February.
At best, Pollio said he hoped schools in Kentucky’s largest district would reopen by mid-February. The district’s tentative timeline has schools reopening five weeks after the first round of COVID-19 vaccines are administered.
In Oldham County, Schultz said it could take months to vaccinate the district’s entire staff.
“It’s going to be several, several months before we get people vaccinated,” he said, stressing the need to continue public health practices like masking and social distancing. “… We want to be back with our kids in-person for face-to-face instruction, and the best way to do that is to stay healthy.”
Regardless of how long the vaccination process takes, school leaders are elated at the prospect of vaccinating their staff against a disease that first emerged in late 2019.
Teachers and staff at local Catholic schools were “very excited” to hear that school employees would be among the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, Schulz said.
“Many people have used the word miraculous to describe that. I would certainly agree with that,” she said. “… I think it lets us know that we’re one step closer to getting to the other side of what we’ve been experiencing over these many months.”
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