Chester County IU Clinic Getting Vaccines To School Staff

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Chester County education staff are getting vaccines this week as part of the program to distribute the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through local Intermediate Units.

School districts reported staff vaccinations are underway now and will continue into next week until all who want to be vaccinated are.

A statewide vaccination program for school employees and contractors was recently launched by Gov. Tom Wolf and the COVID-19 Vaccine Legislative Task Force. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the state health and education departments have partnered with the 28 IUs across the state to establish regional vaccine sites across the state.

The program has reserved 94,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID-19 vaccine specifically for PreK-12 school employees and contractors.

Phoenixville Area School District said it anticipates at least 75 percent of its staff will have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or at least a first dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccination, by the end of next week.

"We are thrilled to add this additional layer of protection to the many measures we already have in place to keep our students and staff safe," said Sandra Claus, PASD communications director.

PASD Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley and other administration staff volunteered over the weekend to help the IU, Claus said.

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-6th) showed up at the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) on Boot Road where IU staff was preparing over the last weekend to get vaccines into the arms of education staff.

"If you want an operation to be efficient, organized, and even color-coded, put educators in charge! This weekend, I visited the Chester County Intermediate Unit and saw their exceptional vaccine distribution process tailored to our community's teachers and school staff. Medical professionals distributed nearly 1,000 vaccine doses both Saturday and Sunday," Houlahan said.

Great Valley School District said it had surveyed staff a few weeks ago — prior to the announcement of the CCIU vaccination program — about whether or not they had already been vaccinated. At that time, over 100 employees indicated they had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

"Since then, and as part of the CCIU effort, just over 500 employees indicated on an interest form that they still wanted to receive the vaccine," the district communications director, Jennifer Blake said.

Blake reported GVSD has been allotted 322 doses of the J&J vaccine for its staff through the CCIU. Those vaccines are being administered through March 23, said Blake.

Tredyffrin/Easttown School District said many staff members have participated in the Chester County Intermediate Unit vaccination clinic and that TESD is registering staff members as the IU program heads into its "second wave of vaccinations."

"Any TESD staff member or contractor who wants to be vaccinated will have had the opportunity to receive the vaccine," said TESD's Chris Connolly.

Houlahan added, "As we all know, we still need more vaccine doses, which is why I'm thrilled President Biden signed our American Rescue Plan into law last week. The funding included in the bill is already working to speed up vaccine manufacturing and distribution, and I'll continue working to make sure we see results here in Chester and Berks."

The Chester County Intermediate Unit thanked the PA National Guard, AMI Expeditionary Healthcare LLC, Signal 88 Security, PEMA, and volunteers for helping with the vaccination clinic.

Among the volunteers was West Chester School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon. WCASD has not yet provided a report of how many of its staff have been vaccinated.

Read a story about the statewide IU vaccine program here.

At seven sites across the state, 88 members of Pennsylvania's National Guard have been working to vaccinate education staff, according to an article by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

A Pennsylvania Department of Education post on social media said, "We are very grateful to the Pennsylvania National Guard for supporting the special initiative to vaccinate Pennsylvania's schools and school staff."