Teachers and school workers who are likely to come face-to-face with students in the coming weeks received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, causing a variety of emotions.
Among them, education workers said: Preliminary hope. Fear. Gratitude. Feelings of guilt. Relief.
Diana Rowey, a music teacher at Woodstock Elementary in Southeast Portland, said she sometimes struggled with feelings of isolation and concern about the future. Like the rest of her colleagues in the district, she communicated with her students through a screen, saying that the months of virtual education value her so much more than the time of years ago.
“It makes me even more appreciative of the community building and joyful times we had in the classroom,” Rowey said.
Rowey has underlying medical conditions, she said, and it is especially important that she be vaccinated before she can go to personal education again.
She was one of thousands of employees in the education sector from across the metro police with three counties getting appointments for the mass vaccination at the Oregon Convention Center. It’s open to the first in the group – people working in K-12 education and day care and kindergartens – a few days after Gov. Kate Brown announced she would be placed on the state’s priority list for the elderly.
The Oregon Convention Center was teeming with National Guard reservists while school staff stood in line, at least six feet apart, to go in early in the morning for their vaccination appointments.
The educators were taken to the cavity of the facility, where staff from Legacy Health and Providence Medical Group injected them with a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. After waiting 15 minutes if they responded and planning their appointment for a second dose, the vaccinated educators were able to go free.
Amanda Shwetzer, the secretary and registrar of Glencoe Elementary, has also been working from home since last March when Brown ordered the state’s public schools to close.
Shwetzer told The Oregonian / OregonLive she’s glad she and her colleagues can get a vaccine. But she said it ‘breaks my heart’ that she was vaccinated, while her mother, who lives in a parental home, has not yet done so.
“If I could give her a chance, I would do it,” Shwetzer said.
Shwetzer said it is imperative that she and her colleagues be vaccinated, otherwise they will not feel comfortable returning to work. A union poll of teachers at Portland Public Schools showed that only about 14% of educators in the district were willing to return to classrooms for two hours at a limited time.
It was back in December when coronavirus infections were double what they are now, and it was unclear when Oregonians would start receiving the doses of vaccines. The high case may not have had a factor, as only 16% of the educators surveyed said they would feel comfortable returning to classrooms if the number of cases dropped.
The union did not investigate its members whether vaccinations were a factor in their willingness to work on the premises.
Several studies have found that children younger than ten do not spread coronavirus, such as teens and adults. The Oregon Health Authority reported 20 cases of coronavirus among the approximately 50,000 public school students who regularly attended the class in December and so far in January.
Forty-three employees of the schools tested positive during the same period, although the agency did not return infections to classrooms.
Kathy Price, an administrative assistant at Cottonwood School, regularly talks to several students when the class is presented at the South Portland Charter School.
She wears a lot of hats, she told The Oregonian / OregonLive. Substitutes for absent teachers, hold disciplinary interventions for students and provide medical care to them.
She misses seeing her students and feels sad that children are growing and changing without being able to watch their development.
“I just want to be with the kids again,” Price said.
Therefore, Price said she was prepared to be vaccinated, although she had concerns about the safety of the vaccine and potential long-term consequences.
“The whole thing is just so new,” Price said. ‘It’s a relief that this is happening. But at the same time, it’s kind of unknown. ”
Kathy Price, administrative assistant at Cottonwood Charter School, pauses for a portrait before receiving her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at The Oregon Convention Center on January 27, 2021 in Portland. “The whole thing is just so new,” she said, “it’s a relief that it’s happening. But at the same time it’s kind of unknown.”Brooke Herbert / The Oregonian
Robin Kobrowski, a principal in the Beaverton school district, said much of her work during distance education involved giving her staff emotional support, including reaching out to struggling people and developing relationships with everyone.
Many of her 75 teachers, administrators, assistants and other educators at Springville K-8 School are grateful that they can be vaccinated because they know all Oregon citizens need it, Kobrowski said.
Robin Kobrowksi, principal at Springville K-8 in the Beaverton School District, pauses for a portrait after receiving her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at The Oregon Convention Center on January 27, 2021 in Portland. “All educators are currently supporting students,” she said. “Because we followed best – the guidelines – the vaccine is something we were interested in feeling safe in an overcrowded interior.”Brooke Herbert / The Oregonian
The Oregon Convention Center is expected to administer approximately 2,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine per day to school district employees and early childhood workers throughout the Portland metro area.
There are about 40,000 eligible educators in the area, plus another 20,000 childcare and preschool workers. Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, has about 3,600 employees.
The district broke up its distribution list for vaccinations in four ‘waves’, with elementary educators and those who volunteered for the limited sessions, two hours a day for classes made up of students with an acute need for academic support.
Portland Public Schools officials expect it to take at least four weeks before each educator in the district has to be vaccinated and government officials have projected an even longer roster. It is estimated that only about three-quarters of employees in the education sector will receive a first dose by the end of the first four weeks.
Oregon’s vaccination efforts are just one of the many logistical obstacles that districts must clear before a large-scale reopening of schools begins.
According to their reopening plans, most districts preferred a return for elementary schools.
At Portland Public Schools, officials say they plan to offer personalized options to families of fifth graders and younger students in early February.
A grade teacher who received a first dose on Wednesday and received the second dose exactly according to schedule will be fully immunized by March 3rd.
In the Lake Oswego district, Superintendent Lora De La Cruz announced that elementary school students will begin personal classes at the end of February, postponing earlier plans following a severe setback by the teachers’ union.
Both De La Cruz and Guadalupe Guerrero, chief superintendent in Portland, said vaccinations are an important step in returning to classrooms.
Union leaders say many educators are terrified of the prospect of returning to the classrooms unvaccinated.
“Educators who have spent years of their lives educating Lake Oswego children have talked about leaving the classroom,” Lake Oswego Education Association president Kelly Fitzsimmons said after the district pushed back its reopening plans.
Brooke Herbert contributed to this report.
– Eder Campuzano and Fedor Zarkhin