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Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District made significant strides toward reopening when several district nurses received the first of two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine last week.
The first round of vaccinations are “another tool in our toolbelt as we look towards the safe reopening of our schools,” district COVID-19 liaison Carolyn Reggiardo said in a statement.
“Our hope is that when more doses are released (in the next phase), we will be ready to help vaccinate school staff to protect against COVID-19,” Reggiardo said.
Nearly 1 million people have been inoculated during Phase 1A of the vaccine rollout, including health care workers, long-term care patients, and individuals aged 65 or older. Phase 1B aims to vaccinate those at risk for exposure due to working in education, child care, emergency services or food and agriculture.
LVJUSD Superintendent Kelly Bowers said it’s “critically important that our school nurses be vaccinated, as they are specially trained and certified to assess staff and students for COVID-19, conduct contact tracing, administer our COVID screening tests, and eventually administer vaccines to employees.”
“We are relying on them heavily during this pandemic and we need them to stay healthy in order for our students and staff to stay healthy,” Bowers added.
Last month, the district submitted and received approval for its school reopening plan by the Alameda County Office of Education. However, increased restrictions by county public health officials and being set back to the state’s purple tier have paused that plan for now. LVJUSD cannot reopen until the county has been in the red tier for 14 consecutive days, and met all other ACOE requirements.
Knowing school nurses “are first in line for the vaccine gives me confidence that we will be able to return to on-campus teaching in the near future,” Bowers said.
