The state of Illinois put teachers near the front of the line to get their COVID-19 vaccinations when they became available. School administrators now want to know how many teachers and staff already received the vaccine, or expect to, so they can make plans for the next school year. But getting that information be tricky.
Cindy Williams teaches at Bent Elementary in Bloomington. She recalled how tough it was last fall trying to connect with 25 first-grade students on a Zoom call.
“The only way I can sum it up is painful,” Williams said.
Williams said getting students back into the classroom, first two days a week and then four, has helped them catch up. When the COVID vaccine became available for teachers, it was an easy choice for her.
“As soon as the vaccine was available, I was happy to get it because I just wanted to get school moving along and get some of those kids back in class,” Williams said.
Getting back in class also is the goal of school administrators, but they need data to drive those decisions. Administrators are trying to get vaccination data without prying into people's private business.
District 87 superintendent Barry Reilly said the district doesn't want to interfere with someone's personal decision to get vaccinated, so it sent out surveys that were voluntary and anonymous.
“The way we do these surveys is staff were sending them out to a mass number (of employees),” Reilly explained. “As we get the feedback, we don’t know who is responding. They can check a box that tells us what their employee status is, meaning are they a teacher, a paraprofessional, a food service worker.”
In the Olympia school system, Superintendent Laura O'Donnell said the only vaccination data the district has for its staff is based on who signed up for the district's vaccination clinics and who has been a close contact in a COVID-19 case. Those who are vaccinated don't have to quarantine.
O'Donnell said, otherwise, the district doesn't plan to ask who has been vaccinated.
“There’s so many mixed emotions, feeling opinions about that at this point, still a lot of unknowns," O'Donnell said. "We just decided unless we had to know, that’s not information we felt like we needed at this point."
O'Donnell said the district could track staff vaccinations fairly well since most waited until the McLean County Health Department (MCHD) brought a clinic to Olympia North Elementary in Danvers.
O'Donnell said getting teachers vaccinated early on was hard. For most teachers and staff, the closest vaccination clinics were in Bloomington and most are during the school day. O'Donnell said Bloomington-Normal teachers grabbed all the slots first.
“It was very frustrating that their friends 15 miles up the road were getting these vaccination slots,” O’Donnell explained. “It was not a happy time, let me just tell you.”
O'Donnell said the Logan County Health Department also helped with an evening clinic for school staff. The Stanford-based school system spans parts of five counties.
O'Donnell said at least three-fourths of the district's teachers are vaccinated and the actual number is likely higher.
Unit 5 schools report about 70% of teachers and staff are vaccinated, based on the latest data from early May.
Cornerstone Christian Academy east of Bloomington reports 57% of its staff has voluntarily turned in its vaccination records. That paperwork exempts them from a quarantine if they are exposed to someone who tests positive for the coronavirus.
Cornerstone's Head of School Beth Sondgeroth said some staff have said they plan to get vaccinated over the summer and a high percentage of high school students have received the COVID vaccine.
“We are hopeful that this will not only provide some protection against severe cases of COVID, but also simplify contact tracing efforts, allowing more students and staff to remain on campus for in-person instruction in the event that we experience a positive case in our school community,” Sondgeroth said.
In District 87 schools, 92% percent of teachers and staff who responded to its survey said they've received the COVID vaccine or intended to. About 60% of the district's staff responded to the survey.
Reilly said he was pleased with the response.
“It’s not surprising. I suspect that when it’s all said and done, most of our staff members will be vaccinated by the time fall rolls around,” he said.
Reilly said he anticipates the fall semester will be a lot closer to normal, but added the district will likely need some remote classes. In the meantime, teachers still have to keep their masks on in school. Most of their students aren't vaccinated yet and elementary students aren't yet eligible. Children ages 12 and up are can now get the COVID vaccine.
School administrators say they are waiting for guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health before they decide if the vaccine will be required next school year.
Bent Elementary teacher Cindy Williams said it's hard to see and hear her first-grade students form words without seeing their mouths, and she knows it's hard for the students to not see their teacher's face.
“My whole goal—and probably every teacher that teaches primary (school)—our goal is to be able to get those masks off those kids, because little kids want to see their teacher’s face,” Williams said. “They need affirmation and they need to know if we are smiling."
Williams said most of her students managed better than expected this year, even though remote learning will never be the same as having students in the classroom full time. But you can expect Williams will be smiling this fall if next school year is back to normal.
