SACRAMENTO — California teachers facing pressure to support school reopenings have a request for state health officials: Put educators near the front of the line for coronavirus vaccinations.
Teachers unions, led by the powerful California Teachers Association, say it’s one of the most important steps needed before the state can safely and fully return to in-person instruction for students who have been out of the classroom for nearly a year.
Educators and labor leaders have used their clout with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to push for teachers to be vaccinated soon, right after health care workers.
“We are essential, just like those frontline workers,” said Toby Boyd, president of the California Teachers Association, which represents about 310,000 educators throughout the state. “We’re not out there as health care workers, but we are important and we need to be treated as such.”
California expects to receive its first shipment of 327,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine shortly and about 2.16 million doses total by the end of the month, Newsom said last week.
Those doses and the ones that California receives next will go to the estimated 2.4 million health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities in the state. Every person must receive two injections of the Pfizer vaccine, three weeks apart, for it to be effective.
Vaccine distribution will quickly expand once the first group is inoculated. But where teachers fall in line relative to others who are considered essential workers, such as grocery store employees, transit drivers and people in the energy sector, is unclear.
Educators said immunizing school employees early is a moral imperative because millions of children are struggling to learn at home and falling behind academically, as well as in their social and emotional development.
“I’m seeing educators break down in tears between the workload and worrying about their students,” said Susan Solomon, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, a teachers union.
“When this all started, none of us imagined that we would still be doing this nine months later,” Solomon said. The vaccine “would make it possible to focus on educating kids in person, which is really what people want to do.”
Newsom’s administration, through the state Department of Public Health, determines who receives vaccinations first. The state has a vaccine guideline-drafting work group made up of medical experts, but it hasn’t released rules for who will be inoculated after health care workers and nursing home residents.
Boyd, the California Teachers Association leader, said that although the union hasn’t “seen it in writing,” state officials have told them educators will be near the front of the second group.
Jesse Melgar, a spokesman for Newsom, noted that teachers, school administrators and parents are part of the administration’s community vaccine advisory committee, which has provided feedback on the rollout.
“We are committed to examine every avenue to safely reopen (schools) for in-person instruction, including designation of their employees as essential workers in the next distribution guidelines for the vaccine,” Melgar said in an email.
The California Teachers Association has significant influence with Democratic politicians in Sacramento, and the union spent more than $35.5 million on campaigns and ballot initiatives in the last two years.
The push to vaccinate teachers early is also gaining traction in the Bay Area, where some city leaders, educators and parents are lobbying for it.
San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen has proposed a nonbinding resolution urging the state to prioritize vaccinations for all school personnel, including janitors, cafeteria workers and other support staff in addition to teachers.
Ronen described the issue as a matter of equity because those suffering due to remote learning are often children of color and those from lower-income families, who may have limited access to technology and child care.
“I have spoken to countless public-school families who are now forced to decide between leaving their jobs or leaving their children home alone without adult supervision,” Ronen wrote in a letter to constituents.
Amy Burke, a pediatrician at UCSF, said many of her patients have suffered during distance learning. She said there have been increases in depression, behavioral issues and obesity among children she sees.
“We just as a society have really abandoned children during this epidemic,” Burke said. “I really do believe that there are going to be long-term ramifications for kids.”
Burke said the vaccine is one of several tools needed to reopen schools. Health experts say other safety steps such as mask wearing, proper classroom ventilation and physical distancing will still be crucial.
It’s not clear when children will receive the first two vaccines likely to be distributed in the U.S., the Pfizer version and one produced by Moderna. Neither has been tested yet on large numbers of children.
Not all educators agree that school personnel should be next in line for inoculation. Gabriela López, vice president of the San Francisco Board of Education, said priority should be given to employees in other essential sectors who cannot work remotely and are exposed to community spread by showing up at job sites.
“It’s important for essential workers who have been on the ground since the pandemic began, such as grocery store employees, to get priority given they never closed their doors,” López said.
She said workers in the food, transportation and construction sectors should come first. The state can help reopen schools more quickly by providing the supplies and funding needed for in-person learning, López said.
San Francisco took steps last week to begin reopening some elementary schools in late January, though many schools are unlikely to begin the process for months.
Nearly 100 private and charter schools have been authorized to conduct in-person learning in San Francisco. Public schools have also begun to reopen in other Bay Area communities, with relatively few cases of in-school transmission.
Ben Harrison, director of operations for Adda Clevenger School, a private school in San Francisco’s Mission District that reopened in September, said he questions whether teachers should be at the front of the line for vaccinations.
“Most schools are fairly controlled environments,” Harrison said. “There are probably other elements of our society that can be vaccinated where it might actually contribute more to slowing the spread.”
Still, some teachers who have already returned to classrooms said the vaccine would help alleviate stress for educators and families and bring students back more quickly.
Cindy Evans, a special education teacher for the Marin County Office of Education, was among the first educators to return to school in mid-May. She said the vaccine would give “peace of mind” to her and others.
Evans taught her students remotely for about two months. She said it was clear they were distracted and often unable to learn through a computer screen. She said she worries countless others are isolated and suffering.
“It’s not working for the majority of them,” Evans said. “I do believe that teachers are essential workers. Kids need to be back in school.”
Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
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December 14, 2020 at 07:00PM
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California teachers push to be near front of COVID vaccine line - San Francisco Chronicle
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