With COVID vaccine deadline looming, Tri-Cities schools vow to remain open

Richland school leaders promised thousands of parents this week that classes will continue in-person on Monday.

Every school district across the state is facing a Monday deadline for all of their employees, including teachers, bus drivers and substitutes, to either get the COVID-19 vaccine or receive an approved medical or religious exemption.

If they don’t, they won’t be allowed to work in the district.

Richland school officials told parents while staff may need to be shifted around and substitutes brought in, they expect the disruption to be minimal.

“We will notify you of any impacts that may affect your child’s school as soon as possible,” the district promised. “Our goal is to limit any disruptions and maintain a consistent, safe and engaging learning environment for every student in our schools.”

The Richland and Kennewick school districts reported nearly three-quarters of their employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

And Pasco said 84% of its staff is vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, Kennewick had the most employees complying with the requirement. Of the 2,800 active staff members, 97% had either filled out an exemption or gotten vaccinated.

Most of those, 83%, were vaccinated.

In total, the district is trying to get an answer from 76 employees, Superintendent Traci Pierce said during a Wednesday school board meeting.

That number includes 35 teachers or certificated employees, 19 paraeducators, five bus drivers, three bus attendants, eight maintenance staff, three nutrition services staff and three secretaries.

Those employees are receiving letters saying they won’t be able to come to work on Monday.

“As an employer we’re prohibited from ... allowing them to work if they haven’t met the requirement,” Pierce said. “Those employees will not be able to work and we will need to place them on unpaid leave. And then we’ll have a little time to work with them to see if they intend to meet the requirement.”

Pierce said they really want to keep the 76 employees with the district.

In Richland, 86% of the district’s 1,800 employees had reported by Tuesday being vaccination or having an exemption.

In all, 74% of the full-time staff are vaccinated and 11% are asking for an accommodation.

“We are continuing to reach out to staff who haven’t filed their paperwork, so that we can keep all of them as part of our team,” said Ty Beaver, the district’s communications director.

The staff members who asked for an exemption will need to take additional steps to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the schools.

The measures are determined by the employee’s job, and can include specific face coverings, additional physical distancing and regular COVID testing.

Pasco school officials reported on Wednesday, 98% of the more than 2,600 employees had filed their paperwork.

“District staff continues to work to help each staff member complete the verification/exemption process,” said Shane Edinger, the district’s public affairs director.

“Pasco schools will continue to offer full-time in-person instruction and we are diligently monitoring compliance numbers to proactively plan for potential impacts. Our goal is to limit any disruptions and maintain a consistent, safe, and engaging learning environment for every student in our schools.”

Vaccine mandate

The mandate has fueled protesters in the Tri-Cities, who feel the requirement goes too far. They fear it will cause staff shortages for positions, like bus drivers., that are already hard to fill.

So far, there hasn’t been an unusual number of staff quitting.

The school districts have said they are working to make sure that employees stay by reaching out and offering help.

After a month and a half of high COVID infection rates among children, they have fallen in recent weeks to be about average.

However, dozens of Tri-Cities students are out of class because they are sick with COVID or been exposed.

Kennewick had reported 71 students and seven staff testing positive for COVID last week, Oct. 4-10. Kennewick High led with nine cases, Fuerza Elementary had eight and Kamiakin High and Park Middle Schools each had seven.

Richland reported 73 students and staff out sick with COVID, but 23 were because of an adjustment to Richland High School’s numbers. The district hadn’t reported the numbers correctly in recent weeks.

Pasco reported having 44 new cases in the last week.

This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.