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Date: 10/27/2021
WILLIAMSBURG – During a meeting on Oct. 20, the Williamsburg School Committee voted 4-1 to approve a vaccine mandate for teachers and other staff at Anne T. Dunphy School.
The vote comes after months of considering the issue, dating all the way back to July when school committees in the Hampshire Regional School District suggested the idea of a mandate in schools to Hampshire Regional Superintendent Diana Bonneville.
In the approved policy, everyone needs to be vaccinated unless someone has a medical or religious exception. If either or both of those exceptions are in place, then those people would have to submit a weekly COVID-19 test to Bonneville as an alternative. If staff does not submit the results by Monday morning, then they will have to use vacation days or personal days to stay home until they do submit results. The Teachers’ Union was in favor of a mandate in the district. Unvaccinated staff who needs to submit a test can use pool testing at the school.
Westhampton School Committee also approved this policy, while Chesterfield-Goshen and William E. Norris (Southampton) committees did not approve the mandate as it is.
Marissa Nye, a member of the Williamsburg School Committee, was the one person who did not vote for the mandate, as she argued it was unnecessary at this point in time.
“If vaccination rates were low and transmission rates were high, I might be inclined to support a vaccine and testing mandate,” said Nye. “But when we have a near universal vaccination rate, with seemingly zero transmission within our school, I’m not sure what we’re trying to accomplish by enforcing it.”
Amber Smith-Harder, another Williamsburg School Committee member, argued that a vaccine mandate is very effective in keeping transmission rate down, especially since this crisis is a public health issue and not a personal one.
Stacey Jenkins, the principal of Anne T. Dunphy, said during the meeting that she has no issue with a vaccine mandate in place at the school, and that it would not affect the hiring process for the future. “I think about our kids,” said Jenkins. “We have mandatory vaccines for our children, and they work. I feel like if we’re asking children to do things, then we should be asking adults to do these things.”
As of press time, the entire Hampshire Regional School District is at a 96 percent vaccination rate. There are only 13 people who are not vaccinated, and only one person is unvaccinated at Anne T. Dunphy.
The committee also approved an article that gives discretion to nurses at Anne T. Dunphy for test-and-stay but failed to approve an article that would have given discretion to nurses for symptomatic testing. Test-and-stay is being used for students who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 but tests negative and has no symptoms. A student can stay in school if this happens. Symptomatic testing, meanwhile, is usually used for students who experience isolated symptoms of COVID-19, like a loss of taste or smell.
Stephanie Faas, the lead nurse for the Hampshire Regional School District, also gave updates on pooled testing. She told the committee that CIC Health, the health tech company assisting with COVID-19 testing to schools and organizations across the state, is currently assisting Hampshire Regional with finding a program coordinator and reassign them to a new staffing agency that would provide the district with newly trained staff to help with testing.
After speaking with the CIC president, Faas said that the district did receive a new program coordinator and would be paired with a new staffing agency within 24 hours. As of press time, the district has not received that new staffing agency quite yet.
In the meantime, Faas has posted a new position for a testing coordinator which has garnered one “really good” candidate she said, as well as a couple of others who may be able to help occasionally. The testing coordinator would deal with the logistics of COVID-19 testing.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) also sent Bonneville information about bringing in the National Guard solely for pooled test collection. Bonneville said the National Guard could start as early as the next couple of weeks.
Jenkins said she felt more comfortable with the school having the ability to perform test-and-stay at the school, but less confident with allowing symptomatic testing. Nurses at the school prefer the former as well, according to Jenkins.
Williamsburg School Committee meetings are conducted the third Wednesday of every month inside the Anne T. Dunphy gym.