Contra Costa County’s top health official on Friday formally recommended that West Contra Unified proceed with its tentative plan to require students at least 12 years old to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Dr. Chris Farnitano, the county’s public health officer, sent a letter to the West Contra Costa School District expressing “strong support” for a vaccine mandate like the one proposed by a district trustee.
A resolution calling for a requirement that faculty, staff and students 12 and older be inoculated was supposed to be considered by the district’s school board at a special meeting next week but Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst cancelled the session late Thursday.
In an interview Thursday, county Supervisor John Gioia said that Farnitano had told him he planned to make the recommendation to all school districts in the county.
But Contra Costa Health Services clarified Friday that Farnitano is “not issuing a blanket recommendation for all schools in the county at this point.”
Will Harper, a spokesman for Contra Costa Health Services, said Farnitano addressed only West Contra Costa Unified because it “had an actual proposal on the table. … If other school districts come up with a proposal, he can weigh in on those.”
The Alameda County Public Health Department doesn’t intend to advise school districts there to adopt vaccine mandates either. Department spokeswoman Neetu Balram said in an email that vaccine requirements for students historically have been driven by the state.
Santa Clara County health officials couldn’t be reached to comment about whether they intend to offer any mandate recommendations and a spokesperson for the San Mateo Health Department said he’d have a statement about that next week.
In his letter to West Contra Costa Unified, Farnitano urges the district to go ahead and issue a mandate, saying vaccinated students are “less likely to miss school due to the need to stay home for isolation or symptoms from an infection.”
“Fully vaccinated students are also not required to quarantine at home after an exposure, as long as they remain asymptomatic,” Farnitano’s letter adds. “In this way vaccination can prevent significant disruptions in a child’s education.”
Gioia said that with Farnitano’s recommendation the district would be able to establish the vaccine mandate immediately if it chooses to.
That’s because the school board previously authorized district officials to adopt whatever vaccine recommendations state or local health officials make without its approval. Gioia said he was told that in a phone call by Hurst and board president Mister Phillips. It’s unclear, however, when the district actually would issue a vaccine mandate.
School board Trustee Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy had written a resolution he intended to introduce at the now-canceled Tuesday board meeting calling for every eligible student and staff member to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31.
If the resolution was approved then, the district may have become the first in the Bay Area to issue a vaccine mandate. Faculty and staff with medical or religious reasons for not getting the shots would have been exempted, as would students for medical reasons only.
But in an internal email Thursday, Hurst said there were some technical problems with the resolution that needed to be resolved first, such as how the district would provide distance-learning opportunities for students who didn’t comply with the vaccine mandate. For that reason, he cancelled Tuesday’s meeting.
Oakland Unified’s school board introduced a similar resolution last week but has not voted on it yet. San Francisco Unified is requiring only faculty and staff to be vaccinated, largely because 90% of the city’s eligible youth are already at least partially inoculated.
The latest health recommendations, if followed by school districts, would thrust Contra Costa into the forefront of local efforts to curb the continued spread of COVID-19, which has been fueled by the delta variant.
Earlier this week, Contra Costa also became the first county in the Bay Area to issue a health order requiring people to prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID before entering restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, as well as gyms and fitness facilities such as yoga and dance studios. That order takes effect Sept. 22.
Thanks in large part to the county’s aggressive vaccination outreach earlier this year, about 80% of eligible residents have been fully inoculated.
Gioia credited West Contra Costa Unified for taking the initiative of exploring a student vaccine mandate in the first place.
“Knowing that West Contra Costa has some of the hardest hit communities, this would be an example of how the school district has been committed to the health of the district’s staff and the families,” Gioia said.
Gonzalez Hoy had hoped the resolution he authored would lead the way for other districts, saying in an interview it mattered to him that West Contra Costa Unified set an example.
“I know that the large urban districts are kind of watching each other to see who would be the first one to do it,” he said. “I’m glad it’s moving forward.”
A large majority of the executive board of United Teachers of Richmond, the district’s faculty union, has voted to support a
Jennifer Peck, who headed a group of almost 600 parents called West Contra Costa Safe Open Schools, said she favors the mandate.
The group had threatened to sue the district if it didn’t reopen campuses this spring after remaining in distance learning all winter. Now, however, Peck says parents and district officials feel like they’re finally on the same page.
Another mandate backer is Kelly Hardy, who had also been a leader of the Safe Open Schools group but left the district and enrolled her child in private school when campuses didn’t immediately reopen.
While Hardy doesn’t plan to bring her child back to West Contra Costa Unified, she said, “This is something to keep the kids and the grown-ups around them safe. … It’s really exciting for the district to be leading on this.”
For some teachers, the return to in-person instruction has come with its challenges. Eric Swabek, a teacher at Lake Elementary in San Pablo, said social distancing has made it difficult to communicate directly with his third-graders, who are used to closer contact.
Swabek, a member of the faculty union’s executive board, said he welcomes a vaccine mandate, adding that he’s pleased the teachers and parents appear more united than earlier this year.
“My feeling is there’s less disagreement or controversy over this,” Swabeck said.
Staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.
