Category: Education

KCK schools studying three options for employee vaccination and testing

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board of Education discussed three options for employee COVID vaccination and testing at a board meeting Tuesday night.

No decision was made on requiring employee vaccinations or testing at this time. The options are examples of possible policies, according to administrators.

The first option presented Tuesday night was to require all eligible staff to get vaccinated on or before Nov. 19. Those who do not have proof on file with the district on or before Nov. 19 would be required to take weekly COVID tests. Under the first option, those who provide proof of COVID vaccination would receive five additional sick leave days for the 2021-2022 school year.

Option 2 was similar to the first, except it “highly encourages,” not requires, eligible staff to get vaccinated on or before Nov. 19. Weekly testing would be required of those who do not have vaccinations on file. All staff who provide proof of vaccination would get five additional sick leave days for the 2021-2022 school year.

The third option also would “highly encourage” staff to get vaccinated on or before Nov. 19. Those without proof of full vaccination on file by Nov. 19 would be required to participate in weekly COVID testing. If a staff member tests positive for COVID and has provided proof of vaccination prior to testing positive, the staff member would not have to use personal sick leave time under the third option.

According to Stephen Linkous, the district’s chief of staff, it would take about 45 days to begin the processes for this policy. Up to three health data specialists would be hired to track students and staff who would test at district sites, he said.

Linkous said an employee survey was taken that showed 1,902 out of 2,128 persons who responded were fully vaccinated, or 89 percent of those who took the survey. About 50 percent of the employees filled out the survey.

Linkous estimated that there would probably be a minimum of about 1,000 persons who would test weekly if a policy was adopted. The district would need staff members specifically to test employees, he said.

If the vaccination policy is adopted, the district would also begin weekly surveillance testing for athletes, as they do not wear masks while actively participating in sports, he said. Then the number of persons tested each week might be up to 2,000.

The benefits of expanded testing, according to Linkous, include that higher numbers of vaccinated staff and students would lead to a reduction in variants; would lead to fewer quarantines and less transmission; would help unvaccinated persons to know if they are COVID positive; would allow employees who are unable to be vaccinated to continue employment; and those who were asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic would be identified.

The challenges of expanded testing are that initial numbers of staff and students would be quarantined, with an initial spike followed by a downward trend; a health testing coordinator would have to lead on-site testing, if that is approved; and they would have to coordinate pickup times of test kits at participating sites.

Board member Wanda Paige said the proposed policies need to go out to all employees, and she had heard from some who hadn’t seen them, or had questions.

Dr. Anna Stubblefield, superintendent, said the policies are examples of what other districts are looking at. She said they are subject to change by the board. The current process at the KCK district is that those who are quarantined or test positive, if it is work-related, are not charged to disability leave. Other districts do not necessarily incentivize through additional sick leave days, or do not all allow staff to be unvaccinated.

The board asked about how the five days of leave would work in different situations.

Dr. Stacy Yeager, a board member, said her biggest concern would be that it might be another barrier to hiring. Employees who did not like the policy could walk to another district, according to Dr. Yeager.

Dr. Stubblefield said these examples did not require vaccinations, but gave the option of vaccination or testing. The Kansas City, Missouri, district has a policy requiring vaccinations or testing, according to Linkous.

Other districts are starting to engage in the conversation about vaccinations, Dr. Stubblefield said. Some of them are waiting to see guidelines following the President’s announcement.

Board Vice President Yolanda Clark said last year, some of the staff members were not able to take their vacation time. If the district gives additional days because of vaccinations, then it should ensure the staff is able to use it, she said.

In answer to a question from Dr. Valdenia Winn, board member, Linkous said a little over 50 percent of the district’s 4,100 employees responded to the survey. He will be doing some more research with the surveys, he said. More than 60 percent of the responses were from certified staff. He will meet with directors to see if there is another mechanism to engage employees to get more data, he said.

For the week ending Sept. 3, the school district had 283 students and 27 staff members quarantined, with 78 confirmed student cases and 15 confirmed staff cases, according to the district’s COVID dashboard.

The district currently requires masking and distancing, and those measures would continue if a new vaccination policy were adopted, according to Linkous.

The employees of Head Start, a federally funded program, are mandated by the President to be vaccinated. The President also is asking states to require vaccinations for school employees, Linkous said.

The school district’s COVID dashboard has figures from the week ending Sept. 3, when there were 283 students quarantined and 27 staff quarantined. There were 78 confirmed student cases and 15 confirmed staff cases then. However, this information should be updated later on Wednesday, Sept. 15, according to Linkous.

Vaccines, tests available


The former Kmart building at 7836 State Ave., a Unified Government Health Department vaccination site, will be open for testing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and for free COVID-19 vaccinations from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. Walk-ins are accepted. There are incentives being offered for Wyandotte County residents, while supplies last. See WycoVaccines.org.
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COVID-19 testing from WellHealth will be available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, at the Kansas National Guard Armory, 100 S. 20th. The site is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. To make an appointment, visit https://www.gogettested.com/kansas.

Mobile vaccines can be requested online at WycoVaccines.org or by calling 3-1-1 (913-573-5311). For more information on the Unified Government Health Department’s vaccine schedule, see WycoVaccines.org.

COVID-19 vaccines and tests are available at other locations in Wyandotte County, including some pharmacies. For locations and availability, visit www.vaccines.gov.

Free vaccinations at KU Health System are open to the public, and appointments are required. Current patients may use MyChart to make an appointment. Others may call 913-588-1227 or visit kansashealthsystem.com/vaccine to make an appointment to get vaccinated. KU Health System currently is vaccinating residents of Kansas and Missouri who are 12 or older, by appointment only. Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the appointment.

Case numbers reported

The University of Kansas Health System reported 79 total COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, Sept. 14, a decrease of three since Monday, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. Thirty-eight patients with the active virus were inpatients on Tuesday, a decrease of two since Monday. Seven of the 38 were vaccinated. There have been eight deaths from COVID since last Saturday, including two on Monday. There was a total of 30 deaths so far in September, compared to 17 for September of last year. Thirteen patients were in the intensive care unit, no change since Monday. Seven patients were on ventilators, a decrease of one since Monday. Forty-one other patients were still hospitalized from COVID, but were out of the acute infection phase, a decrease of one since Monday.

Wyandotte County reported a cumulative 23,316 cases on Tuesday, Sept. 14, an increase of 66 cases since Monday, Sept. 13, according to the Unified Government Health Department’s COVID-19 webpage. There were a cumulative total of 345 deaths on Monday, an increase of three from Monday.
On Wednesday, Sept. 8, the Unified Government Health Department reported that 47.37 percent of Wyandotte County residents had received at least one dose of vaccine. Those completing their vaccinations totaled about 40.52 percent.
The percentage of Wyandotte County residents who were age 12 and older who had received at least one dose was 58.3 percent.

The Mid-America Regional Council reported 207,657 cases on Tuesday in Greater Kansas City, a nine-county area. There were a total of 2,800 deaths. The daily average of new hospitalizations was 125.

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The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 390,031 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Kansas on Monday, Sept. 13, an increase of 2,879 since Friday, Sept. 10. There was a total of 5,773 cumulative deaths reported statewide, an increase of seven since Sept. 10.

The KDHE reported 72,152 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Johnson County on Sept. 13, an increase of 413 since Sept. 10. Leavenworth County had 9,572 cases on Sept. 13, an increase of seven since Sept. 10. Sedgwick County (the Wichita area) reported 71,570 cases on Sept. 13, an increase of 738 since Sept. 10.

On Monday, the KHDE reported 11,022 cumulative cases in Douglas County (the Lawrence area), an increase of 69 since Sept. 10. Riley County (the Manhattan area) had 7,334 cumulative cases, an increase of 30 since Sept. 10. Shawnee County (the Topeka area) had 23,380 cumulative cases, an increase of 162 cases since Sept. 10.

On Monday night, there were a cumulative 41,364,566 COVID-19 cases in the United States, with a cumulative 663,923 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Links


Visit gogettested.com/Kansas and https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19 for more testing sites.

Wyandotte County residents may contact the Health Department at wycohelp.org to sign up for a test to be delivered to their home.

For more details about free COVID-19 testing offered by the UG Health Department, visit https://www.facebook.com/UGHealthDept or call 3-1-1.

To view details about the extension of the mask order in KCK until Nov. 18, visit https://www.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/ug_extendsmaskmandate_nr_09102021.pdf.

To view the resolution extending the mask order, visit https://www.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/r-62-21.pdf.

KCK school board to hold budget hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 14

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board of Education will hold a budget hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, at the school district’s Central Office, 2010 N. 59th St., Kansas City, Kansas.

A public hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate for the 2021-2022 school year will follow at 5:10 p.m., according to a meeting notice.

The proposed school district mill levy rate is the same as last year’s.

During the hearings, the public may speak and ask questions about the budget.

The proposed budget for 2021-2022 is 49.65 mills, the same rate as the 2020-2021 actual tax rate, according to the district’s budget document.

In the 2019-2020 school year, the rate was 49.605 mills.

Proposed total expenditures for the 2021-2022 year are $584,877,945. Last year, they were $417,436,666.

The proposed budget will refinance bonds to save about $4 million in interest costs and will move 1.16 mills from the bond and interest fund into the local option budget (LOB) fund for additional operating expenses, according to earlier reports from district officials.

It increases the local option budget from 30 to 33 percent. District officials said earlier this year that it would not increase the mill levy rate for local taxpayers.

One of the many other items on the agenda Tuesday will be a discussion on staff vaccination numbers.

The meeting will be shown on YouTube, according to the agenda.

The meeting agenda is online at https://go.boarddocs.com/ks/kckps/Board.nsf/vpublic.

To see an earlier story on the budget, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/kck-school-board-to-consider-bond-refinance-and-raising-local-option-budget-authority/.

‘We demand better’: KU students, faculty call on administrators to mandate COVID-19 vaccines

by Lucy Peterson, Kansas Reflector

Lawrence — University of Kansas students, faculty and staff members called on administrators to mandate vaccines on campus during a rally Sunday, expressing concerns about the ongoing surge of the delta variant of COVID-19.

Nearly 40 people gathered at the university’s Wescoe Beach to push back on the administration’s reluctance to mandate a COVID-19 vaccine for individuals on campus this year. The rally was held by the Vaccinate KU coalition, which formed this summer with a Change.org petition urging KU to require vaccines. The petition has garnered 1,118 signatures since it was posted on July 18.

Vaccinate KU presented a list of 11 recommendations to the chiefs of staff for KU chancellor Douglas Girod and provost Barbara Bichelmeyer at the start of the school year, said the coalition’s founder, Sophie Kunin, a senior at KU. Kunin scheduled the Vaccinate KU rally in the shadow of Strong Hall, where Girod, Bichelmeyer and other administrators have offices, because none of the recommendations was implemented.

“The university needs to recognize that by not taking on this list of safety precautions, they’re putting KU and the Lawrence community at risk,” Kunin said at the rally. “Today is a day to recognize other perspectives and to discuss what we need to do at KU to keep our community safe. This rally is about the safety of everyone.”

The recommendations made to KU include requiring masks on campus until 80% of students are vaccinated, implementing social distancing requirements on campus and creating an office for contact tracing.

Despite several schools across the country who have mandated vaccines on campus, such as the University of Indiana and the California State Universities system, KU has not required vaccines on campus because “state law limits our ability to require vaccination or proof of vaccination,” said KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, responding to an inquiry for this story via email.

The state statute Barcomb-Peterson cited prohibits state buildings from requiring a COVID-19 “vaccination passport” for entrance.

KU requires all students to have a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine before arriving on campus and requires all students living in university housing to have a meningitis vaccine before moving in.

Advocates for an on-campus COVID-19 vaccine mandate included professors, graduate teaching assistants and students who are worried of contracting the coronavirus in classrooms. Many who spoke urged KU to push against the Legislature to protect the KU community and surrounding Lawrence community.

“Suing the state for the ability to mandate a vaccine could save KU, would save lives, and it won’t put any target on our back as an institution that wasn’t already there,” said Elise Higgins, a doctoral candidate in the Department for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at KU. “Vaccine mandates can lower COVID rates, and if our Legislature won’t protect us, you can at least try to do it yourselves.”

Professors and students shared stories of fear as they and those in their classrooms began contracting the coronavirus in the 2020-2021 school year, but were unable to know the extent to which the spread occurred because of a state statute barring KU from conducting its own contact tracing.

Since Aug. 1, 2020, a total of 1,824 people at KU have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to KU’s COVID-19 dashboard. In the week of Sept. 2, a dozen people on campus tested positive for the coronavirus.

Andrew Kustodowicz, president of the Graduate Teaching Assistant Coalition, said professors and GTAs were forced to return to in-person learning, despite the GTA union’s formal request to require vaccinations before returning to the classroom.

“I think what’s really unfortunate is that KU’s administration has kind of weaponized the overwhelming majority of people’s desires to be back on campus,” Kustodowicz said. “GTAs, while we did excellent work on Zoom, ultimately, we want to be in the classroom. But when KU said, ‘You will be in the classroom, there will be no vaccine mandate and you cannot choose to protect yourself,’ that became an unacceptable working condition.”

GTAC called a meeting as part of its ongoing contract negotiations with KU where members asked for flexibility in how they could safely instruct classes if vaccines weren’t required, Kustodowicz said. KU denied a request to choose how classes would be conducted, he said.

Student body president Niya McAdoo said the Student Senate office has had informal talks about on-campus vaccine mandates, and she and her administration are prioritizing protecting students’ livelihoods.

“People are still dying every day from COVID. We’re not out of the pandemic,” McAdoo said at the rally. “Obviously, vaccination has helped, but it hasn’t solved the issue 100%, so we have to continue to work together to show up for each other and show up for the greater community. If we don’t do it, a lot of other people won’t do it for us.”

Although the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 23, Barcomb-Peterson said KU is still unable to mandate vaccinations. No universities in Kansas have moved to require vaccines for its students, faculty and staff.

KU rescinded its mask mandate on May 27 after recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said vaccinated individuals no longer needed to wear masks. On Aug. 6, KU said it would again require masks for the 2021-2022 school year because of a surge in the highly contagious delta variant forcing the CDC to revise its mask recommendations.

Naomi Madu, a senior from Abuja, Nigeria, studying strategic communication, said her family members have little access to vaccines in Nigeria. Only 2.3% of people in Nigeria have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.

“I don’t know how to explain to (my family) that the country with the most vaccines in the world has the least regard for human life,” Madu said at the rally. “There’s no reason for us to still be here, and it’s unbelievably reckless that this university has adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach while new variants continue to ravage marginalized communities in this country.”

To urge students to get vaccinated, KU is offering prizes for students who upload their vaccination cards to their Watkins Health Center patient portal. Prizes include a full semester’s tuition, $5,000 in cash, $1,000 in dining dollars and a free campus parking pass.

“If we are capable of grasping the gravity of this situation we’re in,” Madu said, “our educators and administrators should be able to grasp that as well, and I hope they understand that our lives are worth more than $230,000 in prize money.”

Kansas Reflector stories, kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/12/we-demand-better-ku-students-faculty-call-on-administrators-to-mandate-covid-19-vaccines/