Western Pa. teachers struggle to get information on vaccine distribution

As the state expands the first priority group for the covid-19 vaccine, educators in Western Pennsylvania are struggling with inadequate and often conflicting messages about when teachers and staff could receive their first doses.

Teachers and staff inside school buildings fall into Phase 1B of the federal and state guidelines for priority groups. But as the next phase looms closer, most teachers have gotten little guidance on how to move forward.

In the past few weeks, districts have been sending surveys to teachers and staff to gauge their interest in receiving the shot (the vaccine is not mandatory in most districts). Superintendents have called local pharmacies and health systems looking for information on how they can prepare, and in hopes of scheduling immunization appointments. Few have been successful.

Tim Scott, superintendent at Kiski Area School District, said he’s been in contact with Westmoreland Emergency Management and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, but he’s still facing roadblocks. He doesn’t know where to get information on how to receive the vaccine, or who the advocate would be. Kiski Area was the only district in Westmoreland County to remain open ahead of the winter holidays and is operating with a hybrid model that allows up to four days of in-person instruction.

“This is just a glaring example,” he said. “There are 500-plus districts in this commonwealth, and we’re all by ourselves.”

The confusion is only compounded by the knowledge that some area districts have been able to arrange vaccinations for teachers in the past week — before the state formally has moved out of the first priority phase. In Westmoreland County, Ligonier Valley School District had 182 employees vaccinated Sunday through a local pharmacy, The Medicine Shoppe, and neighboring Greater Latrobe School District expects the majority of its staff members to have their first doses by the end of January.

‘You can’t get definitive answers’

Several district leaders in the region said they were happy the two districts were able to inoculate their personnel. But they’re confused and frustrated that they haven’t been able to do the same.

Robert Scherrer, executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, said the organization is working with the Allegheny County Health Department and local health systems to disseminate vaccine information to school leaders as it becomes available.

“While the current frustrations are understandable, we are excited that educators will soon be vaccinated,” Scherrer said in a statement. “At the end of the day, we want our students to safely return to their classrooms as soon as possible.”

Pittsburgh Public Schools is partnering with UPMC to inoculate teachers, Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said at a virtual news briefing earlier this month. Hamlet said administrators had been in conversations with the Allegheny County Health Department and formed a committee to put a plan in place.

But weeks later, Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President Nina Esposito-Visgitis said little progress has been made — through no fault of the district, she said. There is just no information coming in from state or local leaders about when teachers can expect to be vaccinated.

“It’s very, very difficult,” Esposito-Visgitis said. “I truly do have the best interest of students and of teachers at heart. You want people to be healthy. Safety is our No. 1 concern. You’re constantly bombarded with all of these conflicting messages, and you can’t get definitive answers.”

“We just need a date,” she added. “The district is telling people they’re coming back Feb. 1. People want to know they’ll be safe.”

Districts pitted against each other

The breakdown in communication exists all over the state. Scott said all Westmoreland County superintendents had met last Thursday with health experts at Excela Health. At the meeting, Scott said, the educators were reminded they would not be eligible for the vaccine for some time, and they shouldn’t expect any change before the end of February. Three days later, Ligonier Valley teachers got their shots.

Conflicting or contradictory information has become a defining feature of the covid-19 pandemic for school districts, which have had to repeatedly shift instructional models and update procedures with the state Department of Education’s changing guidelines.

Scott said it feels like districts have been constantly pitted against each other and compared to one another, often on matters that are influenced by individual school buildings and communities — students and families take note of who stayed open, who shifted to remote learning and who has the best online program. Vaccine distribution is just another opportunity for this to happen, Scott said.

But the sporadic and inconsistent vaccine distribution among school staff also presents a possible equity issue, district leaders say. Why should some districts receive it while others don’t? Why isn’t the vaccine being distributed evenly across all schools? The questions exist among all priority populations in the vaccine distribution process.

“My bigger concern is the equitability of all districts in Westmoreland County having the ability to get the vaccine,” said Janet Sardon, superintendent of Yough School District. “All of our teachers and staff are important.”

Yough has toggled back and forth between three instructional models this year, Sardon said, at some points offering in-person instruction but operating completely remotely for the time being. She said the district is waiting for the county’s community transmission to lower before reopening buildings. If teachers had access to the vaccine, though, the district might have an easier time creating an environment that is healthy and safe, she said.

Scott said “equity” tends to be a buzzword when it comes to education — but the way vaccine rollout is going for teachers so far suggests some “rampant hypocrisy” exists in the process.

“If we really held equity as a high value, we should consider vaccinating those educators who teach the most disadvantaged populations so they can, with confidence, return safely to in-person instruction,” he said. “Already there exists so much research to suggest that our poorest children are subject to the most significant learning losses.“