Tri-Cities school staff have 2 weeks to get COVID vaccine. One district already at 62%

More than 2,000 Pasco school employees have reported getting vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of Washington state’s Oct. 18 deadline.

There are still up to 900 more who need to either to get the shots or turn in a medical or religious exemption, said Sarah Thornton, Assistant Superintendent of Legal Affairs.

“Overall, we are pretty pleased with our numbers and our staff response so far,” she told the Pasco School Board this week. “We have several weeks to track that information down.”

Pasco is the first school district to release just how many people have claimed an exemption or been vaccinated ahead of the cutoff to comply with a state mandate.

What’s unclear after Thornton’s presentation Tuesday night is how many of the 2,600 employees the district relies on to run the schools every day still need to either get the shot or file an exemption.

They won’t have that number until after the deadline passes, said Shane Edinger, the district’s director of public affairs.

In all, the district has 3,350 employees, but that includes student employees, game officials and substitute teachers.

Of the total, 2,070 have reported getting vaccinated, or 62%. Another 300 have claimed either a medical or religious exemption, with 54 more exemptions still being processed.

Other school districts

While Kennewick and Richland will need to report on the vaccination and exemption figures to the state, they don’t expect to have their numbers available until that point.

Ty Beaver, Richland’s communications director, said the human resources department is still in the middle of reviewing the information being provided by employees.

More than half of the district’s 1,800 staff have filed paperwork about their vaccination or exemption status.

Kennewick has about 2,800 active staff members.

School employees across the state, including teachers, coaches, bus drivers and volunteers, need to either get the vaccine or file a medical or religious exemption.

The requirement covers public, private and charter schools. The vaccination is a requirement for their employment.

As of August, state Superintendent Chris Reykdal estimated 40,000 to 50,000 school employees need to get the vaccine.

The mandate has fueled protesters in the Tri-Cities who feel like the requirement goes too far. They fear it will cause staff shortages. Many of whom are already hard to come by, such as bus drivers.

So far, however, school officials say they have not seen a problem.

Thornton said a couple employees have said they plan to quit but there hasn’t been a large number. But, she said, that may change when the district reaches the deadline.

Exemptions

The state superintendent’s office provided districts with an example of the medical and religious exemption forms to use.

All of the districts have said they’ve used those forms as a model for their forms.

In the form, the employee must explain whether their religious beliefs lead them to object to all medical treatment, vaccinations or only the COVID-19 vaccination.

They also need to explain how their religious beliefs conflict with the vaccination requirement, and the accommodation they are requesting.

Federal and state law allows for a broad definition of religion, according to a brief from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the state Attorney General’s Office.

It includes traditional organized religions, as well as “religious beliefs that are new, uncommon, not part of a formal church or sect, or only held by a small number of people.”

That can even extend to “moral or ethical beliefs about what is right and wrong, which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.”

At least one Tri-Cities teacher told the Herald she was concerned people in her school were going to use the religious exemption as a way to sidestep the requirement.

She felt her district is more concerned about getting back to normal then protecting her and others’ health.

The advice from the state says employers are encouraged to presume the requests are based in a sincere belief in a religion, unless the employer has an objective reason to question the employee.

“In determining whether an employee’s religious belief is sincerely held, a limited initial inquiry could include objective, general questions, without delving too far into an employee’s reasons for a particular belief and without requiring input from an outside source, such as a formal religious leader,” according to the state guidance.

COVID in schools

More than 1,000 Tri-Cities students have been out of class during the first month, either because they’ve come in contact, have COVID symptoms or tested positive.

Kennewick schools had 1,055 students absent from class Sept. 20-24.

That includes 116 students who tested positive. Kamiakin High School leads those cases with 19 students, and Kennewick High is just behind with 15 students.

So far this week, Pasco has seen 32 cases with 281 at the district Sept. 13-Sep. 26. While the district lists where the cases occur, there is some lag before the list is updated with all of the cases.

So far, the district has listed 14 cases at McLoughlin Middle School last week.

Richland has returned to updating its numbers daily, rather than weekly.

The district reported 61 cases last week. Hanford High had six students and two staff out sick with COVID. The district began the week with another 21 cases among students.

Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District, has said the high number of students and staff sick with COVID is a reflection of the high number of cases around the community.

That was echoed by Thornton, who told board members that last year from Sept. 3-16 there were 157 new cases per 100,000 people. This year that number is 1,383 per 100,000 in Franklin County during the same period.

“The case rate in the community is significantly higher than last year when we were planning to open schools,” she said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 9:31 AM.