The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education approved a vaccine and testing plan at the Tuesday night, Sept. 28, meeting.
The policy “highly encouraged” staff and others to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and if they don’t have proof of vaccination on file with the district by Nov. 19, they would be required to participate in weekly COVID-19 testing.
All district staff who provide proof of vaccination would have five additional sick leave days added to their annual contract for the 2021-2022 school year, according to the new policy.
The board included school volunteers in the new policy, along with staff. The volunteers and staff would have to test weekly if they aren’t vaccinated.
A minimum of 45 days will be needed for the district to implement the new policy, according to administrators. Staff will upload a copy of their vaccination cards to a district website.
The administration presented the board with three policy options, and the board selected the second option, adding volunteers into the group.
Voting for the new vaccine and testing policy were Yolanda Clark, Janey Humphries, Maxine Drew, Randy Lopez and Dr. Valdenia Winn.
Wanda Brownlee Paige voted against the new policy, saying it was a public health issue. She said that so far, American society has allowed a lot of choice on vaccinations and it hasn’t worked. She was in favor of stronger mandatory language requiring vaccines in the policy.
Dr. Stacy Yeager voted no because she said she did not like the idea of volunteers being tested. She said she looked forward to continuing to work on the policy.
On an earlier motion by Paige, the school board voted down the first vaccine and testing policy option. The first option stated that vaccinations would be “required.” On that motion, Clark, Drew, Humphries and Yeager voted no, with Lopez, Paige and Winn voting yes.
“This is a public health crisis,” Paige said. “This mess will never end if we keep saying, we just encourage you.”
Dr. Yeager said she wasn’t able to accept mandating that all eligible employees receive a vaccination. She said she thought they would be the only school district in the county requiring employees to have vaccinations, which would be a hardship. She discussed the possibility that school district employees might leave if there was a mandate to get a vaccination.
Humphries said showing proof of COVID vaccination is similar to other school district rules that require vaccinations against other diseases.
Lopez asked for more explicit language around whether employees who tested positive for COVID were exposed in the workplace, and how it would affect their sick leave. That information will be added to the plan, according to the motion.
Stephen Linkous, the district’s chief of staff, said that currently the district is trying to follow the CDC recommendations along with the Unified Government Health Department recommendations. The district requires masking in schools, and that policy will remain in place.
A video of the meeting is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnolho4V9Zw. The discussion on the vaccine and testing policy starts at 1:54 on the tape. The vote on policy 2 is at 2:42.
