(UPDATED) Millburn Superintendent: Teachers Need Covid Vaccine

MILLBURN, NJ — Amid increasing pressure for New Jersey schools to open more hours per week — and for teachers to be prioritized for vaccines so they can feel safe at work — Millburn Superintendent of Schools Christine Burton said in a newsletter Friday that she's joining the chorus calling for educators to get vaccines.

[UPDATE: Gov. Phil Murphy has announced that teachers and day care workers will be eligible starting March 15: See updates and a link to watch Monday afternoon's press conference here.]

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Right now, some essential workers have been eligible to get the vaccine in New Jersey, including health professionals, police, and firefighters. Find out if you qualify by clicking this link.

"I shared the following information with Millburn staff this morning," Burton wrote Friday: "We continue to advocate for our staff and students in the district. I recently signed a letter with other superintendents to the governor advocating for our education professionals to gain priority access to the vaccine. In addition, I supported the board's approval of a resolution at this week's board meeting to send the message to the governor to prioritize vaccines for our staff."

Standardized testing and emotional needs

Burton also said she made a recommendation about standardized testing, and more.

"Finally I gave testimony to the Joint Committee of Legislators on a number of topics that included the push for staff to have access to the vaccine. I also included the recommendation to have NJ apply for the waiver for standardized testing this year and funding to help address the social and emotional needs of both staff and students in our district."

She said, "I, along with the administrators in the district, have advocated for throughout this process, we will provide for the safe return to school every step of the way. Thank you again for all of your extraordinary efforts, time and stamina as we head into March with the hope of spring with warmer weather and brighter days ahead!”

What has to happen for schools to reopen fully

Last week, Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex and Morris), vice-chair of the Assembly Education Committee and a former member of the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education, released a long statement about full reopening schools, citing two things that will help teachers return:

• Coronavirus vaccines for all teachers, and
• "Demonstrated ventilation adequacy in interior spaces where windows cannot be opened as the weather improves."

Vaccine information

Presently, the state's sites are vaccinating people in the 1A and 1B groups, including certain essential workers, seniors over 65, and people 16-65 with chronic medical conditions. Find out who qualifies by clicking this link.

Some in New Jersey have been helped to find vaccine appointments via social media groups, like New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info on Facebook, which has 67,000 members.

Last week, Patch reported that young people in Short Hills and Westfield have started volunteering to use their tech skills to get elderly residents a shot. READ MORE: Westfield Teen's New Group Finds Coronavirus Vaccines For Seniors

Meanwhile, the state is soon expected to get shipments soon of the new Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccines. Read more here.

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA), a new type of vaccine that doesn't include the weakened virus, but teaches human cells to make a protein that triggers the immune response (read more about that here). Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is more traditional.

As of Monday, more than 513,000 Americans have died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

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