ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Monday night, members of the Orange County Public Schools school board approved sending a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, requesting that staff with direct contact with students be in the next COVID-19 vaccination group.
What You Need To Know
- OCPS Board is asking Gov. DeSantis to allow some staff members younger than 65 to get the COVID-19 vaccine
- This is not the first time the Board has asked the governor for this special designation
- Their hope is he'll approve the vaccine for certain staff members if he won't allow all teachers to get it
This isn’t the first time the school has called on the governor for this special designation.
Superintendent Barbara Jenkins sent a letter requesting the same thing in December.
What’s different about this time is the school board says if the governor won’t approve their request for all teachers, the hope is he’ll consider approval for staff who are at risk because of their age and/or underling health conditions.
This comes as the Florida Department of Health and OCPS plan to set up a closed pod to administer vaccines to staff and faculty who are 65 and older.
Wendy Doromal, President of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, says this couldn’t come at a more critical time.
Right now, the Florida Department of Health says the pod plans are in the beginning stages, but Doromal hopes those plans develop fast, and expand along the way.
“It’s really important that every teacher and every employee … every cafeteria worker, bus driver, everyone get vaccinated as soon as they can," she said. "Especially for those teachers who are 65 and older."
This is on the heels of Orange County Public Schools hitting a record high daily total of new reported coronavirus cases.
There were 118 new cases reported Monday.