CCSD Board Approves Vaccine Mandate For Staff

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Clark County School District (CCSD) Board of Trustees approved a resolution last week that authorized central district staff to develop a plan for the implementation of full vaccination of all CCSD employees.

The 5-1 vote to approve the resolution came at the end of a seven-and-a-half hour meeting which began on Wednesday night, Sept. 1 and extended well into the early morning hours of Thursday.
Only Trustee Danielle Ford voted against the resolution.

Trustee Katie Williams attended only a portion of the meeting by telephone, but was not in attendance for the final vote. Williams, whose district includes the Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley communities, had criticized the proposed resolution in social media posts over the weekend before the meeting. But she did not comment on it at the meeting.

Fierce debate
The controversial measure was perceived, by the CCSD community on both sides of the issue, as a vaccine mandate for all employees. Many expressed fears that the next step would be a similar mandate for the student population as well. Although the resolution stopped short of that.

“I am requesting for you to allow me to develop a plan and processes necessary to implement the full vaccination of our staff,” said CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara. “Let me be clear, I am not asking for authority for student vaccinations.”

The board heard more than five hours of opening public comments before deliberation on the item even began. An overwhelming majority of the comments were in opposition to the mandate.

The atmosphere in the meeting was volatile and even raucous at times with members of the public cheering the viewpoints they agreed with and shouting protests against statements which they opposed.

Several times, Board President Linda Cavazos pounded the gavel and threatened to clear the room and continue the discussion as a virtual meeting. But this was not done. On a number of occasions, however, Cavazos did instruct CCSD police to remove certain audience members from the room who were being particularly disruptive.

Local commenters
Several Northeast Clark County residents got up to express their opinions during public comment.
Mack Lyon Middle School principal Ken Paul was the only school administrator to offer comment at the meeting. Paul warned that, if approved, the mandate would have an adverse effect on students and education.

“Site-based administrators like myself will be the ones looking staff members in the eyes, sending them home without pay and following progressive discipline resulting in dismissal,” Paul said. “This will have a direct impact on our community, our school, our staff and our students.”

A number of local teachers also rose to express opposition to the proposed mandate.
Mesquite Special Education teacher Jody Ludvigson pointed out that a similar mandate, recently enacted in Chicago public schools, had resulted in the walk-off of hundreds of bus drivers from their jobs. This left thousands of students without transportation, Ludvigson said.

“If you don’t think similar effects will be felt in our district then you need to wake up,” Ludvigson told the board. “These effects will be particularly felt in our rural schools.”

“Please focus on what you’re getting paid for: to educate our students,” Ludvigson added. “It is not to infringe on my human rights or to make medical decisions for me and my family.”

Another Virgin Valley teacher, Angela Crouch, insisted that employees should not have to choose between the vaccine and losing their jobs.

“If you want a vaccine, that is your choice,” she told board members. “If I don’t want a vaccine that is my choice. You are forcing me to choose between my 25th year of educating children, whom I love beyond belief, and being able to support my family. That is very wrong.”

Moapa teacher Tara Wolfley said that she had never been given the chance to disclose antibody testing showing that she had already contracted COVID-19 and recovered. Studies show that this natural immunity provides longer-lasting resistance to the virus than the vaccine does, she said.

“Yet still there is this massive, coercive shove for all to get the vaccine,” Wolfley said. “My rights as an individual to make my own medical decisions are being infringed upon..”

Moapa Valley teacher Meja Hammonds urged the board to slow down and consider the unintended consequences of the mandate.
“This is my life, my students’ lives, my kids’ lives,” Hammons said. “At least wait before you make a decision. Learn more about it. Give it time.”

Moapa Valley teacher Vanessa Fullman said that she had worked hard to get the chance to be able to teach children as a career.
“I love my job,” she said. “I am not anti-vaccination. I am anti-mandate and anti-coercion. I am anti-lockdown. I am anti-government overreach. If the vaccine is mandated, I will work until I am fired.”

Board discussion
CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara said that the resolution was merely for the district to begin working with bargaining partners to create a plan for full vaccination of employees. District staff would have to engage with the unions to negotiate the details of the plan.

“This will not go into operation if we are going to have the mass exodus that has been spoken of,” Jara said. “That is why it will have to be bargained with all of our bargaining units.”

Jara said that his utmost goal in proposing the resolution was to keep schools open. In recent visits with high school seniors, Jara had asked the kids what they would do if they were CCSD Superintendent for a day.

“They said they would do whatever it takes to keep our schools open,” Jara said. “This is one of the mitigation efforts that we are bringing forward to do that.”

Trustee Lola Brooks said that while there are many voices speaking out on the issue, she trusts the voices of the medical and scientific experts. Those voices indicate that vaccinations are the best way to manage the public health issue, Brooks said.

“This is a difficult decision, especially with a room full of people who want a different decision,” Brooks said. “But it is my suggestion that this board needs to rise and meet this moment. This is needed to keep the community safe. The unions are going to be involved. There is no logical reason for us not to support it, other than we don’t want the political hit.”

Cavazos said that she had serious concerns about the way the resolution had been rolled out without involving teachers and administrators in the process thus far. “We could have done a better job of that,” she said. “It would have been helpful if we could have had some of these questions and concerns answered beforehand.”

Trustee Lisa Guzman expressed a desire to have the final plan brought back to the board for consideration before being implemented. “I want to make sure that all of these concerns are negotiated with our partners,” she said. “I hope that they will be”

The lone opposing vote, Ford said that she was concerned about passing a mandate when so many other less draconian measures had not been fully discussed.

“There is a world where I might have supported this,” Ford said. “For example, if we didn’t have such a severe staff shortage already, if we had a way to rehire staff later, if we had incentivized our staff to get the vaccine first, if we had communicated better, if we really knew that a mandate would make all the difference, if there was a contingency plan in case this plan fails, if previous COVID operations had not been so badly implemented in the past.”

“Everyone is worried about unintended consequences and I don’t feel like those have been addressed,” Ford added. “Our employees are assets. They are valuable resources. I don’t feel like this was done with respect to those resources. So I won’t be supporting it.”