Vaccine program back on for Sonoma County educators

The campaign to vaccinate 17,200 education workers in Sonoma County is set to begin Monday, a critical step in the quest to protect teachers from the coronavirus and accelerate the reopening of school campuses.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom and the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that vaccinations are not required to reopen schools, the decision to open eligibility to teachers will help soothe nerves as districts attempt to negotiate union agreements that will bring students and teachers back to campus.

“Our educators are absolutely a priority for us and we realize that school needs to (reopen),” county health officer Dr. Sundari Mase said Friday. “We don’t actually need to have the vaccinations prior to reopening, but we really want to get there so we felt like it was very appropriate.“

Day care providers, preschool staff and select school employees, including those 70 and older, are among the first eligible for the coronavirus inoculation program administered by the Sonoma County Office of Education starting Monday.

Eligible educators were notified of the upcoming clinic by their district employers or county child care agencies beginning late Friday morning. Those who fit the criteria were encouraged to sign up online for appointments starting Monday to receive the first round of the Moderna vaccine. The county education office was allotted 1,100 doses by county public health for the first week of the program.

The first priority group also includes educators of any age who currently have direct contact with students, including teachers, custodians, clerical support staff and meal service workers. Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University instructors who are providing in-person instruction are also eligible.

The second priority group will expand to include all prekindergarten and sixth grade staff — grade levels prioritized in Newsom’s “Safe Schools for All” campaign to return to in-person instruction.

“This first tier that they have developed with us is very logical,” Sonoma County Superintendent of Education Steve Herrington said of county health officials. “People who have contact with students on a daily basis are eligible. It’s a good compromise, it gets us moving.”

The launch of the vaccination program focused on teachers and child care providers comes in the wake of the last-minute cancellation Jan. 29 of about 500 appointments designated for school staff. That move, part of what county officials admitted was a “debacle” came after confusion over who could sign up for appointments and allowed those younger than 75 to fill the vast majority of slots set aside for that vulnerable population.

In response, and to make sure that the county’s oldest residents could get inoculated, the county canceled thousands of appointments, including those targeting school staff.

But talks over the past week, as well as what county vaccine chief Dr. Urmila Shende on Friday called a successful effort to target vulnerable residents 75 and older, opened the door for county public health to again promise the SCOE program an allotment of 1,100 doses to launch a clinic starting Monday.

"It comes down to the numbers,“ Shende said of targeting the most elderly. ”We have made good progress.“

The launch of the educator-focused clinic comes as average case rates in Sonoma County — a crucial hurdle to returning to the classroom — continue to drop. As of Friday, the county’s adjusted case rate per 100,000 residents was 26.9 — approaching the level of 25 needed for five consecutive days in order to reopen classrooms.

All but a handful of the county’s 68,000 school children have been learning from home since mid-March, when county schools shut down campuses and shifted to distance learning in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.

“I will tell you that superintendents want schools to reopen, there is no doubt about that in my mind,” Herrington said. “If we can get one step closer to ’safe,’ that is one step closer to reopening.”

Facilities that for the most part have never closed since the pandemic took hold locally last March are child care centers and preschools, said Melanie Dodson, executive director of Community Child Care Council of Sonoma County, or 4Cs.

Dodson became emotional Friday morning after hitting “send” on an email to about 1,500 child care providers letting them know they are eligible for the vaccine through a new clinic dedicated to educators.

“This really gives the opportunity for people who are most at risk and who have been very nervous and still working and making the lowest wages in our field, an opportunity to get a little peace of mind and security in a really unsettling time,” she said.

After the mass-cancellation of inoculations recently, Dodson penned a letter to the Board of Supervisors and Shende urging leaders to include the county’s child care providers and preschool staff in conversations about who should receive a vaccine.

“I just think they have been prioritized this way and there is this understanding now that as essential workers who have been on the front lines since the beginning of the shelter-in-place that they have been heard,” she said

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.