Southern Colorado school districts prepare roll-out for vaccinating teachers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Starting February 8th, teachers and child care workers will be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Now, school districts are preparing for when the time comes.

Governor Jared Polis made the announcement Friday during his press briefing, saying that the group is being moved up to receive the vaccines sooner than the original plan outlined. The goal is to have all 120,000 Coloradans that fall in that group vaccinated within three weeks.

“It’s really what we’ve been asking for and a number of us have been pretty vocal,” says Joe Schott the President of the Colorado Springs Education Association. He and several other education associations were told by Polis before the press conference about the update regarding eligibility. Schott says, “we need the essential support and safety as well so this is exactly what the governor should have done and we are glad for it.”

District 11 in Colorado Springs couldn't agree more. “The vaccine will further allow us to keep kids in schools where we know they learn best and our teachers are very excited,” says Devra Ashy, a spokesperson for the district. She tells us D11 has already compiled a list of frontline teachers and staff that should get vaccinated first. Ashby says it includes classroom teachers, classroom aides, principals, food and nutrition services, employees who work in the cafeterias, and bus drivers.

District 70 in Pueblo did the same thing, creating a list of staff that wants to be vaccinated. “We can go ahead and break that list out however it’s needed to be,” says district spokesperson Todd Seip. Out of D70 1300 employees, 800 said they wanted to get vaccinated. Both D70 and D11 are not mandating every employee must be vaccinated.

Now, districts are waiting to hear exactly how this will work. They wonder if schools may have to close for a day so teachers can get vaccinated and if they would be able to get vaccinated at schools as some districts do for flu shots.

“We could collaborate and have that happening on one of our campuses or several of our campuses we haven’t gotten that far yet,” Ashby says. Either way, these districts, and teachers say they will be ready when the time comes.

Seip says, “We’ve got a lot of options on the table just need to know how many vaccines are available and what day they want to give them and we’ll make sure we make those phone calls and be ready to go.”