Merced County teachers get COVID vaccines, as schools prepare for return to classrooms

Merced pediatrician Dr. Sima Asadi was on a tight schedule as she arrived to a vaccine clinic at Planada’s Cesar E Chavez Middle School on a Thursday afternoon.

These days Asadi is pressed for time because she’s vaccinating teachers, school district administrators and others across Merced County, after officials announced last week that educators were eligible for the vaccines.

So far, she has vaccinated 3,500 public and private school educators. And with 22 school districts in Merced County, that’s a lot of injections to be made in the upcoming weeks.

“I’m moving very quickly,” she said. “The health department is moving very quickly. From the start the health care department and I, our local health department and I have been in agreement that these kids, all kids, need to be back in school.”

Scenes like that at Cesar E Chavez Middle School are slowly becoming more commonplace in Merced County, which this month will hit its year anniversary for its first local coronavirus case. Since last March the virus has killed more than 410 Merced County residents and infected more than 29,000 people locally.

Thus far it’s not clear how many educators countywide have received the vaccine. However, Asadi said she’s already visited Snelling-Merced Falls Union Elementary School District, Le Grand Union Elementary and Le Grand Union High School District, Weaver Union School District, El Nido Elementary School District and Merced Union High School District.

There’s also a need to vaccinate teachers because more districts are making plans to reopen for in-person learning. Case in point, Merced Union High School District, which has 9,975 students on 10 campuses, is planning to open up for a combination of in-person and remote learning on March 15.

Cristi Johnson, director of student services at Merced Union High School District, said 50 employees were vaccinated by Get Well Urgent Care this week. Plus, Asadi was able to vaccinate 200 MUHSD employees as well.

Overall, around 600 MUHSD employees were able to get vaccinated with either the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

An additional 215 MUHSD district employees were able to get vaccinated within two hours at the district’s vaccine clinic, which was done in partnership with Castle Family Health Center on Feb. 25 at Buhach Colony High.

Jose Gonzalez, superintendent of Planada Elementary School District, said getting his staff vaccinated is a huge sigh of relief. “We’re currently up to 90 employees out of 125 who have received the vaccine,” Gonzalez said.

As a result, his district plans to open up Planada Elementary and Cesar E Chavez Middle School to its 772 students for hybrid learning beginning March 22.

Another huge goal for the district is to add additional days of learning to make up for the time students weren’t on campus. Instead of having the last day of school fall on June 4, the district will extend that to June 30.

Teachers, staff ready to return to classroom

For educators like Sara Castillo, a teacher at Cesar E Chavez Middle school, Thursday’s clinic and others like it are hopefully the beginning of life getting back to normal — or at least closer to it.

“I decided to get vaccinated because I have five beautiful children that are school aged, and I have seen firsthand, not only as a teacher, but as a parent, as a community member, how much our students are in need of coming back to in person (learning), and how much they desire — and they’re so enthusiastic and they’re ready to come back,” Castillo said.

Graciela Dixon, a special education teacher at Planada Elementary, expressed similar sentiments.

“So now, it’s (about) how do we get our kids into the classroom safely when they’re going from the classroom back to home,” Dixon said. “It’s not just about vaccinating teachers because they’re also going to go home — it’s about vaccinating our whole community.”

Rosa Campos, a counselor at Le Grand High School and a parent, was hesitant about getting the vaccine. Like many other district faculty employees, she was concerned about the common side effects, such as sore arms and headaches, but in thinking about her children and those around her, she wanted to get vaccinated for them.

“I myself want to make sure I’m doing the best I can, as a parent, as a community member and as a counselor to make sure that our school is being opened and that we can go back to a new normal,” Campos said.

What other districts are seeing

The Sun-Star reached out to several district superintendents this week, to find out whether their teachers and administrators have begun getting in line for vaccinations.

For example, Snelling-Merced Falls Union Elementary School District, 8 out of 11 employees were vaccinated, said superintendent Alison Kahl.

The district’s one school, Snelling-Merced Falls Elementary, remains open for in-person learning, for the 78 students.

Most are on campus for in-person learning, while a few do distance learning. Kahl said the small size of the student body and administration makes social distancing much easier.

At Le Grand Union Elementary School District, nearly 60 percent of employees were vaccinated, said superintendent Scott Borba.

Those who chose not to get vaccinated primarily made that decision due to the virus side effects.

“We’ve had some folks that since last December have tested positive,” Borba said. “And so they feel like, OK, I don’t want to get the vaccine because I’ve already had COVID.”

Although the majority of Le Grand Elementary School District employees got vaccinated, it will be awhile before the district decides to switch back to doing only in-person learning for its 372 students.

“You really have to be cautious,” Borba said. “We’re dedicated to our students in our community and their education, but right now the safety and health of our students, staff and community is the most important thing.”

Next door at Le Grand Union High School District, superintendent Donna Alley, said nearly 68 percent of staff were vaccinated.

Despite the vaccinations, Alley wants to wait until the county gets into a less restrictive tier until all 472 students go back to only in-person learning. Currently, Merced County remains in the purple tier — the most restrictive level under the state’s COVID rules.

Both Le Grand districts are in the process of getting antigen testing for students.

El Nido Elementary School District had 62 percent of their employees vaccinated, said superintendent Lori Gonzalez. The district will continue with in-person learning for its 161 students, still permitting distance learning for those who want it.

John Curry, superintendent of Weaver Union School District, said 78 employees were vaccinated. Asadi expects to vaccinate more Weaver employees on Saturday.

Curry was glad to have the employees start the vaccination process, but still would like to have an additional 300 employees vaccinated, which will depend on the number of vaccines available in the county.

“The challenges we experienced were the same for all school districts in that our local health department did not get what we all considered our fair share of vaccines from the state,” Curry wrote in an email to the Sun-Star. “We continue to work on getting the remainder of our employees vaccinated should they choose to do so.”

Weaver is on distance learning for its 2,685 students, with the exception of special education students and those with extenuating circumstances, but is pondering hybrid learning now that some employees are vaccinated.

What’s next?

The district employees who got their first vaccine doses will receive their second doses this month, Asadi said.

It was important for Asadi to make sure smaller school districts like Snelling-Merced Falls, both Le Grand districts, El Nido, and Planada have access to vaccines as they already have students on campus.

Asadi will vaccinate Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint School District, Merced City School District, and Merced County Office of Education employees this month.

Ultimately, she would like to vaccinate all district employees so every child in all 20 public school districts can be back in the classroom.

“I want to see our community heal, but most importantly, I want to see these children go back to as much of a normal life as they can,” Asadi said.

This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 8:00 AM.