Malibu Teachers Begin Vaccinations, Expect To Return March 15

MALIBU, CA — Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District educators and staff have begun receiving vaccinations through a partnership with Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica Monday.

The agreement between the district and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified Classroom Teachers Association ratified on Feb. 19 says that students in grades TK-5 can return to campus part-time fifteen days after educators and staff begin receiving vaccinations, and once the county's adjusted case rate falls below 25 cases per 100,000 per day for five consecutive days. With a county case rate of 12.3 as of Monday and the vaccination clock starting today, students are expected to return to class March 15.

Currently, staff over 65 or who work for the district's health or nursing teams have already been vaccinated, per county requirements. The district is coordinating with St. John's to set up a system that prioritizes appointments for staff already working on campus and will be expected to go back on March 15, according to a district news release. The district said that its staff of 2,000 will receive daily appointments until they are all vaccinated, though district spokesperson Gail Pinsker said she could not estimate exactly when that might be. Los Angeles Unified School District, which just announced that it obtained enough vaccines for its teachers, estimated that its 86,000 employees will be vaccinated by April.

"We are pleased to have St. John's as our partner to ensure our teachers and staff who wish to be vaccinated are vaccinated over the next few weeks," said Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Dr. Mark Kelly. "We have encouraged our staff to seek vaccinations by any means possible, to expedite the process."

That means that staff can receive the vaccine through St. John's, their own health provider, or through the county or state. Staff who aren't able to receive the vaccine by the 15th can return to work if their job calls for it, and must submit requests for medical leave or special accommodations through the district HR department, Pinsker said.

Students in grades 6-12 will not return to campus until Los Angeles County reaches the Red Tier, meaning four to seven cases per 100,000 each day and a coronavirus test positivity rate of between five and eight percent. The county is currently in the Purple Tier, but Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer estimated that it could enter the Red Tier by the spring.

When students return, they will participate in a Distance Learning Plus system. Each SMMUSD school is working with parent groups and staff to develop its own site-specific version of this hybrid approach.

The DL Plus system would give families the choice to remain either all-virtual, or follow a hybrid model of virtual and on-site instruction. For example, an elementary school may allow students back on campus for two full days a week. On the remaining three days, students would learn online in the mornings, and return to campus from 1-3 p.m., where they would be split up into different cohorts.

The district's 105-page safety plan outlines a number of precautions the school will take, including masks, enforced social distancing, a mid-day school cleaning, temperature checks upon entrance, COVID-19 compliance teams at each school site, and a comprehensive action plan in case anyone on campus tests positive or exhibits COVID-19 symptoms.