Peabody Superintendent Praises Educator Vaccine Announcement

PEABODY, MA — As Peabody pursues an aggressive plan to get students back in the classroom five days a week by the end of the month, Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala said he is "appreciative" educators will be able to be vaccinated for the coronavirus in the process.

Vadala, who pushed for teachers to join first responders as priority groups in Phase One of the state's vaccination rollout in January, said the decision to clear educators for the vaccine nearly six weeks later will still help the transition to full-day, in-classroom learning.

"We are truly appreciative of the governor's announcement to make educators eligible for the vaccine," Vadala told Patch Wednesday night. "This was a united effort from the teachers, administrators, legislators and community members to prioritize educators in order to return students to in-person learning.

"We are excited to continue our collaborative effort to return as many students to full-time, in-person learning as soon as possible."

Gov. Charlie Baker said on Wednesday that teachers will be eligible to sign up for appointments from state facilities as of March 11 to avoid confusion with the federal guidelines after President Joe Biden said Tuesday night all teachers across the country should have access to at least a first dose of the vaccine by the end of the month.

CVS opened educator eligibility for the federal pharmacy program as of Wednesday morning.

"We think teachers should part of the game starting next week, and they will be eligible for appointments," said Baker, noting there are still more than 600,000 state residents age 65 or older or with two or more underlying health conditions waiting for appointments. "If the feds dramatically increase supply to help states deliver on this directive from the White House that would be terrific because we have the capacity in Massachusetts to do far more vaccinating than we do actual vaccine."

The Peabody School Committee last week approved a plan last will that would bring students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade back on March 15, and the remaining students two weeks later.

"Peabody's teachers have done an amazing job supporting their students within our hybrid model and our goal has consistently been the safe return of as many students as possible to in-person school settings so we can maximize learning and address our students' holistic needs," Vadala said in revealing those plans. "There's no way to fully quantify the immense positive impact being in school has on students' mental health and learning ability. Additionally, in-person learning will more fully enable the district to deliver critical wraparound services that benefit students in need."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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