Greater Latrobe school district staff members, who lined up on Saturday to get macabre vaccines, said the vaccines gave them a glimpse of hope that the pandemic was coming to an end.
“I was thrilled,” said Renee Gyory, a secretary and one of the first employees in the district to be vaccinated. “It is positive, it is what we need. The sooner everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner we can move on with a normal life. ”
The district vaccinated 200 employees on Saturday, with the hope of vaccinating an additional 200 next week.
“It’s a huge, huge relief, as you can imagine,” said superintendent Georgia Teppert. “It is more of a security measure. We can’t let our guard down yet because you still have to wear your mask, you still have a social distance, but it’s a light at the end of the tunnel. ”
Teppert has not been vaccinated due to the limited doses available. More than 400 district officials said they were interested in receiving the vaccine, according to assistant superintendent Mike Porembka, but The Medicine Shoppe in Latrobe only had 200 doses.
Many team members agreed to wait, said Porembka. Of those included in the first wave, priority was given by age, with the oldest team members first.
“We hoped that, before the kids came back and actively went back to school, we would be able to have something available to prevent or lessen the impact (of the virus),” said James Shawley, a janitor who was vaccinated. “I think it is a sign that our country is finally coming out of this crisis that we are in, and maybe we can get back to normal.”
‘Wild West’ in the hunt for vaccine
Greater Latrobe is one of the few school districts that has obtained vaccines. School officials must be vaccinated in phase 1B – the second phase of the state’s implementation plan. The state is still in phase 1A, which initially included the first respondents, medical professionals and patients in nursing homes.
However, some pharmacies took extra doses after administering vaccines to their category 1A patients. These pharmacies were allowed to move to phase 1B, according to the state Department of Health.
Greater Latrobe worked with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and The Medicine Shoppe to receive vaccines. Ligonier Valley School District staff members were previously vaccinated by LVRx Pharmacy in Ligonier.
Businesses like this are likely to be harder to come by after the state expanded phase 1A last week to include all residents 65 and older, as well as anyone with certain health conditions.
Education officials say the lack of clear state guidance has made it frustrating for individual school districts struggling to strike deals with pharmacies to obtain vaccines.
“It has become a kind of wild west of districts trying to defend itself in terms of ensuring vaccination, and that is not how it should be,” said Jason Conway, executive director of the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit.
Due to the expansion of phase 1A, most school districts will likely have to wait until vaccines are more widely available, said Fritz Fekete, defense coordinator for southwestern Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
“It is very difficult and there is a lot of frustration with availability, because people want to go back to school,” he said. “I don’t even know if you can call this a process, it’s chaotic.”
Jacob Tierney is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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