Sacramento teachers’ union proposes mandatory vaccines and COVID-19 testing
The Sacramento City Teachers Association has proposed requiring vaccines for staff and eligible students, along with mandatory COVID-19 testing for all students and staff, regardless of vaccination status.
The proposal, made Wednesday, comes just days after the Sacramento City Unified school board announced it is considering imposing similar requirements. If the association’s proposal is approved by the board, the district would be the first in the region to move forward with both mandated testing and vaccines for those eligible.
The board will vote in the coming weeks whether to keep the district’s current voluntary testing program, impose a vaccine-or-test requirement for students 12 and older, similar to the one the state ordered for teachers, or mandate vaccines with limited exemptions but no options for eligible students to test out.
“The health and safety of students and staff and ensuring that our students have teachers in the classroom should be our top priorities,” said David Fisher, a second-grade teacher and the president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. “SCTA’s comprehensive proposals would help the district achieve these goals.”
The California Department of Public Health provides PCR and Antigen testing to the district for free. The district uses federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding to provide staffing to conduct testing at 76 sites. If the district moves forward with mandatory testing, the district will need to hire additional staffing, said Victoria Flores, the district’s director of student support and health services.
The teachers union proposal would also require the district to notify parents when their child’s class does not have a regular teacher or substitute. The district currently has about 200 vacancies among certified teachers, leaving more than 1,000 students without a regular teacher in their classrooms.
The district has reported an average of 19 new COVID-19 cases each day since the beginning of the school year. This data comes after New Joseph Bonnheim Elementary, a dependent K-6 charter school in Colonial Manor with 270 students and 23 staff members, identified 24 positive COVID-19 cases on the campus. The school remained open after the local health office reversed its recommendation of a two-week campus closure.
Several school board members have already shown interest in implementing a full vaccine requirement.
Raoul Bozio, Sacramento City Unified in-house counsel, said a vaccine requirement is within the district’s legal rights.
“It is ... within the powers of a local jurisdiction, local governmental agency and school district to require certain health and safety measures in order to maintain the safety of its schools,” Bozio said.
Within weeks of reopening campuses, some schools in the Sacramento region experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases and quarantines. Currently, vaccines are only available for students 12 years old and older.
Los Angeles Unified schools made regular testing mandatory. The Oakland Unified school board voted Wednesday to approve vaccine mandates for students. Elsewhere in the United States, regular testing is growing in popularity.
Sacramento City Unified has provided a total of 23,000 vaccines to its community.
About 47% of county residents ages 12 through 17 are fully vaccinated, compared to 53% of eligible juveniles statewide, California Department of Public Health data show.
Michael McGough contributed to this story
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 1:12 PM.