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Date: 9/15/2021
NORTHAMPTON – The Northampton School Committee voted at its Sept. 9 meeting to approve a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for staff.
To be in compliance, employees must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 22.
Committee member Emily Serafy-Cox said during the discussion it was important to implement a vaccination mandate for staff.
“We have seen tonight from our president strengthening vaccine mandates across the country and I had asked to put this on the agenda prior, but I feel like that reinforces the importance of keeping our staff, students and community members safe,” she said.
While fellow committee member Susan Voss tried to make a friendly amendment to the motion to include requiring vaccinations for students participating in extracurricular activities, Narkewicz said it would be better to hold off on that discussion since it could lead to an Open Meeting Law Violation.
“Our legal counsel has raised some concerns over that, and our bigger concern tonight is an Open Meeting Law issue because this is a fairly substantial policy not noted in the agenda. This would stretch the boundaries of a friendly amendment that is far beyond the agenda item. I would prefer that our legal counsel and Health Advisory Committee look at it and possibly discuss it further at a future meeting,” he said.
Before jumping into the COVID-19 action items, the committee discussed their role in making public health decisions, especially when related to COVID-19.
Committee member Lonnie Kaufman said he did not feel qualified to make decisions and the committee should clarify who makes what decisions between the School Committee, the Health Advisory Committee and Superintendent John Provost.
“I do not remotely feel as qualified to make decisions around this as the members of the Northampton Health Advisory Committee. I have been pleased with their role so far; I do not come close to their knowledge in terms of making health related decisions and I do not think that is why I was elected,” he said. “We need to make a solid decision on who makes these decisions and how communication is shared.”
Voss said there needs to be more communication between the Health Advisory Committee, the School Committee and residents.
“The number of concerns people have had and the number of emails that have gone back and forth between constituents has been frustrating for them as they worry if their unvaccinated kids are going to pick something up and bring it home with them. Sometimes I think this advisory committee is not hearing from the range of constituents and understanding all the concerns,” she said.
Mayor David Narkewicz said the committee should be making larger policy decisions and not direct, day-to-day ones.
“I think it is a balancing act between our policies versus real time decisions that have to be made about ever changing data, guidance, conditions and clusters that may occur. I believe we should make larger policies, not the day-to-day decisions, which is why we delegated that to the Health Advisory Committee and the superintendent to make the final decision,” he said.
Member Laura Fallon said the jurisdiction was clearly defined based on previous policies passed by the committee, including one to give Provost the ability to amend policies as necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is still a policy in place where we gave the superintendent the authority to amend policies as necessary during the pandemic as an emergency policy covering because we only meet once a month and require notice. To me it is clear the Health Advisory Committee should have decision making over health issues and if it is a policy or related to contracts of the employees it should come to us,” she said.
Ultimately the committee agreed to reaffirm in writing that the committee would address longer term policies regarding COVID-19 while Provost and the Health Advisory Committee would work on the day-to-day COVID-19 responses.
During the meeting the committee also agreed to continue to meet remotely through the end of the current term.