More than one-third of St. Paul Public Schools employees were out of compliance with a coronavirus vaccine mandate when the district’s policy went into effect last month.
The school board on Sept. 3 approved the mandate, which required all employees to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 or to test weekly for the coronavirus.
After the first week, 62 percent — 4,509 out of 7,295 employees — reported they were fully vaccinated. And only 214 employees — 3 percent — submitted results from a COVID-19 test; one tested positive.
“We still have vaccine hesitancy that we’re seeing, not just in our district but across the state,” Mary Langworthy, the district’s health and wellness director, said in an interview.
Langworthy said the district sends weekly email reminders to employees who have not attested to being vaccinated. Some may not be getting the message because their jobs don’t involve computers.
“It’s a new program, so you’re going to have hiccups along the way,” Langworthy said.
‘A BIT OF GRACE FOR THE FIRST WEEK’
District spokesman Kevin Burns said employees could face discipline for failing to comply with the mandate, but that hasn’t happened yet.
“We have people who are following up with those who did not respond. And we are offering our staff a bit of grace for the first week of the vaccine requirement,” he said.
The district does not require proof of vaccination. Employees simply complete a brief survey through a district portal.
“Didn’t have to show anybody anything. It was just me saying that I’m not lying,” teachers union president Leah VanDassor said of the survey.
VanDassor said she heard from only a few unhappy union members around the time the mandate was issued and nothing since. And no one from the district has reached out to ask the union’s help in getting compliance up, she said.
STUDENTS HELD OUT
Meanwhile, hundreds of students in the St. Paul district still are being excluded from school because they haven’t been vaccinated against numerous childhood diseases, such as polio and measles, mumps and rubella.
Langworthy told the school board in September that more than 5,000 students were behind on their required shots. That number was down to 935 on Oct. 27, when the district began excluding children from school.
As of Monday, 378 students still were being held out of school.
“To go from 5,000 a month prior is pretty amazing,” Langworthy said. “I’d love it to be zero because I’d hate to exclude anyone.”
St. Paul district students are not required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
OTHER MANDATES
In late August, St. Paul Public Schools told the Minnesota Department of Education it expected 30 percent of its employees would need weekly tests this school year because they’d refuse to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Langworthy said the district recently received test kits and is working on getting them out to each school.
Rochester Public Schools, one of the few districts that publicly reports vaccination data, said in September that 88 percent of its staff had been fully vaccinated. That district does not have a vaccine mandate.
When the New York City school system’s vaccine mandate went into effect in October, 95 percent of staffers reportedly had had at least one shot; the school system there does not offer a testing alternative.
Ramsey County’s coronavirus vaccinate mandate for its employees went into effect Monday.
It requires employees to show proof of vaccination or weekly testing. Those who comply get an incentive payment, while those who don’t will be disciplined, according to a county letter to employees.
Mayor Melvin Carter announced recently that City of St. Paul employees have until Dec. 31 to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. City employees are not able to test as an alternative, and the unvaccinated will not be allowed to work.