More than half of Pittsburgh Public Schools employees receive covid vaccines

More than half of the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ teachers and staff will be at least partially vaccinated by the end of this weekend, following a series of clinics that started this week, district officials said.

“This is the end of a pretty fantastic week,” Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said Friday.

Rodney Necciai, assistant superintendent of student support services, said 1,419 district teachers and school staff – mostly those in elementary schools, bus drivers and those who work with special education students and English language learners – scheduled appointments to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccines through the state’s initiative to vaccinate educators. Those clinics, at Pittsburgh Obama in East Liberty, began Thursday and will continue through Sunday.

More than 1,500 additional teachers and staff were able to receive a first-dose shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week at Heinz Field, thanks to a surprise partnership with Giant Eagle.

Necciai said those numbers make up more than half of staff. He estimated at least 200 additional employees have already gotten the vaccine on their own as part of the state’s Phase 1A rollout.

“We know that all of our staff who are interested in being vaccinated have had an opportunity to be vaccinated,” Necciai said. “This is truly amazing and we’re very grateful we’ve been able to help make this happen.”

Giant Eagle contacted Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s office last week to say it was receiving an extra shipment of doses and wanted to help inoculate teachers in the city. Within days, the pharmacy, Peduto’s office and the district organized a multi-day mass vaccine clinic for Thursday and Friday.

“We recognize, in the city, the priority for vaccinations to our older population, to those who have been exposed to cancer or other illnesses,” Peduto said. “But we also recognize that getting our teachers back into the classrooms and getting, more importantly, our children back into the classrooms, will help to disrupt and to reverse disparity in education.”

Peduto cited aging school buildings with older ventilation systems, poor internet access and other challenges educators have encountered this year.

“Unlike our suburban neighbors, city schools and the families that live within the city are not as well-equipped to handle learning at home as areas that are more affluent,” he said. “And we realize that those challenges only make greater the disparity that we see within the city of Pittsburgh. When children don’t have access to broadband or access to computers, it becomes even more challenging to create the opportunity for learning at home. The importance of getting back to that classroom is much greater than in suburban areas.”

Pittsburgh schools’ phased return to in-person instruction begins April 6, starting with a cohort of students, “Support Category 4,” who have been identified as having the highest need. The group of 4,786 students includes those who have struggled most with online learning, along with kindergarten and pre-K students.

State officials on Friday said more than 6,500 educators across Pennsylvania have been vaccinated through the Johnson & Johnson initiative, with 20 of the 28 intermediate units conducting clinics operational.