To parents of secondary students: Please accept our apologies for the last-minute notice that students would attend classes virtually on Monday. I want to offer a deeper explanation.
As many of you know, our faculty and staff over the past week have had the opportunity to receive the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Though most side effects are mild, some have experienced temporary headache, chills and fever that occur hours after the injection. Some have had to miss work, and we understand this. We strongly encourage our staff to be vaccinated so we can fully open our schools.
Originally, we expected that school districts would be vaccinated as a group, so we could effectively plan for widespread absences. However, the Commonwealth, which administers the clinic, changed the process and allowed staff to choose any time during the week.
Last week, the clinic began offering available appointments in the evenings to additional staff. By coincidence, enough Southeast Middle School employees were vaccinated Thursday that we needed to move to virtual classes for students on Friday.
Then, late Friday evening, we learned that more employees—mostly at the secondary level—would be offered vaccination appointments over the weekend. Because all of this is managed by the Commonwealth, we had no way of knowing who was offered appointments, how many, or when.
That’s why we found out this morning that several schools would be severely understaffed. We had little choice but to pivot to virtual instruction for the day.
This is certainly not the fault of our teachers or staff—they need to be at their best to teach, and many likely went to bed not knowing how they would feel in the morning.
Again, we apologize for the late notice. That is never our intended practice. Our administrative team is reviewing our processes to ensure we can move more quickly in these situations. Please note, school staff will continue to receive vaccines over the next two weeks, so we could experience staff shortages again.
We understand your frustration, and we appreciate your understanding in this unique situation.