SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – With kids preparing to go back to school, the COVID-19 pandemic prepares to possibly take center stage this school year.
While students and teachers will be required to wear masks in Washington state schools, all school staffers are now required to get vaccinated for COVID-19. That’s beginning to cause some consequences at local school districts. The biggest hurdle schools are dealing with right now, isn’t a lack of funds for masks and other PPE, but a lack of knowledge of what the school year will really look like and who will be there. “I don’t want to hit the panic button but I’m worried,” Brian Talbott, East Valley School District Superintendent said. Talbott is the new superintendent at East Valley, but knows just as much as anyone about the predicament Washington schools are in. Finding masks for the 3,700 students in the district isn’t the problem. “We have about 30,000 masks on hand,” he said. Getting funding for all of the extra pandemic-required expenses isn’t the issue, either. “Most of that is coming out of the ESSER funds,” he said. The challenge comes with arguably the most important aspect of running a school, the staff. “I just saw 4 more postings go across my computer this morning,” Talbott says, “It’s across the board – it’s structural staff, support staff, it’s every component of what we do.” Despite having the funds to hire more people, finding and keeping those workers is the issue, especially now that Governor Inslee is requiring all K-12 staff be vaccinated. “All districts receive the same funding so we’re all looking for additional staffing and the market is saturated and so we continue we have more postings this summer than we’ve ever had and we’re continuing to right up to the last minute,” Talbott said. “We’re going to continue to hire and probably beyond the start of the school year.” In a survey given before the announcement of the vaccine mandate, 80 of the district’s 500 respondents said they would seek an exemption or walk away. But there still isn’t any new information on what those exemption forms will look like or requirements will be. “The planes running down the tarmac and we’re waiting for the rules,” he said. East Valley schools are returning fully in person with an option to go virtual but without a full staff. Talbott said he’s concerned. “It’s gut-wrenching – I mean these are people who are committed their time here to serve students and to serve the community and our schools and I’m worried that a mandate may get in the way of what their passion is,” he said. Talbott says thankfully, no one has left the district yet, but things can change in a second, and they aren’t sure yet what the impact of this vaccination requirement will be.
