The Sweetwater Union High School District considered Governor Gavin Newsom's Executive Order and considerations for early implementation of mandatory vaccination for staff and students during it’s Oct.11 regular board meeting.
Governor Newsom issued an executive order on Sept. 30 which will require students and staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccination to be able to continue participating in a public education or employment setting. At this time, grade groups 7th through 12th are expected to be vaccinated by July 1, 2022.
General Counsel Jennifer Carbuccia and Dr. Vernon Moore shared a brief presentation on the Vaccine Mandated plan. No votes were taken at this meeting. “A lot of the work that you’ll hear and see over the 7 presentations we brought before the board when we talk about reopening plans or COVID-19 plans or testing plans is that this really is about multiple layers of protection. It’s the swiss cheese analogy. It’s really talking about how when you put a layer upon a layer upon a layer of protection, you ultimately stop that virus so getting vaccinated is absolutely one of the first steps” Carbuccia said.
The Board of Trustees have voted on more than seven action items related to COVID-19 since March 2020. "Our goal is to make sure our community as a whole is safer," says Trustee Dr. Adrian Arancibia. Trustee Nicolas Segura has asked staff to bring forward a district plan.
According to the SUHSD, among 36,523 students: 65.4 percent have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 60.5 percent of all students have received all recommended doses. In addition, 83 percent of staff and 15 percent of substitutes have submitted proof of vaccination.
A number of things were in effect as schools entered their second quarter. According to Carbuccia, 83 percent of staff at that time and 15 percent substitute teachers had submitted proof of vaccination.
Last week was the district’s first week of mandated testing for unvaccinated staff. The district reports 99.9 percent of staff, 25 percent of substitute teachers have either submitted proof of vaccination or submitted to weekly testing last week.
“It’s only the first week and we have a lot more to go. We are really blessed to have 25 available testing sites for staff and students, and multiple others made available just to staff to ensure they don't miss out on instructional time or time at work so they can comply with the mandates" Carbuccia said.
The district has implemented multiple COVID-19 regulations and measures to help protect staff, students and their families such as the utilization of face masks, social distancing, student at-home pre-screening and improving ventilation units district wide. According to Carbuccia, the district is engaged in educational awareness and is working with the County Department of Health on public health reinforcements.
“Our nurses are on the phone with public health sometimes hours a day talking about outbreaks that are happening at certain schools, testing, talking about actual contact tracing and what is happening, and that is a huge step as well. All of these are our protection layers, vaccines are one of the strongest ones,” Carbuccia said.
According to Carbuccia, since the implementation of the Emergency Conditions resolution on March 23, the SUHSD has seen COVID operational reports, modified reopening plans and entered into agreements with the County of San Diego to allow for district nurses to assist the county when there are not enough nurses.
Additionally, the SUHSD entered an agreement with the state of California for pool testing services with San Diego State University for the National Institute of Health grant for COVID-19 short term staffing. The district anticipates obtaining an outside contract with manpower to assist with that short term staffing to cover testing sites, and to assist with contact tracing, logging and calling families.
Student athletes and students participating in extracurricular activities test weekly. According to the district, the few COVID-19 outbreaks in the district are directly related and tied to an extracurricular activity.
The district plans on increasing the numbers of testing by assisting substitute teachers and coaches implement testing or uploading their vaccination cards. The district will hold an event at the Chula Vista YouthTheatre on Oct. 13 from 3 p.m to 5 p.m for this purpose.
