All CCSD employees can now make COVID vaccine appointments

All of the Clark County School District’s approximately 42,000 employees, as well as those of public charter schools, are now eligible to make appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine, the district said Wednesday.

Chief Human Resources Officer Nadine Jones wrote in a memo to employees that appointments are open through an education “point of dispensing” hosted by the Nevada System of Higher Education. Clinic locations are at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada’s Henderson campus.

Nevada’s COVID-19 Vaccine Playbook lists a wide variety of school employees in the top category under the “Frontline Community Support” occupational group, including public and private teachers and those who “provide services necessary to support educators/students.” As examples, it lists administrators, IT staff, librarians, guidance counselors and transportation and operations workers, among others.

But elsewhere the playbook states that “within each eligible population listed, an individual whose position can work remotely or socially distancing is possible while performing work duties is not recommended to receive the COVID-19 vaccination in the initial prioritized rollouts.”

The Review-Journal obtained the memo minutes before the end of business hours and could not immediately reach a district spokesperson.

It remains unclear if all private school employees are currently able to make vaccination appointments. At least one large, local private school, Faith Lutheran Middle School and High School, said in late January that all of its employees had been cleared to begin making appointments. The Alexander Dawson School and Mountain View Christian Schools also confirmed late Wednesday that appointments are open to all of their employees.

The district, which has operated under 100 percent distance education since March, is bringing back pre-K through third grade students to classrooms under a hybrid education model starting March 1. Families have the option of having students spend two days a week in the classroom and three days with distance education or having their child continue with distance education.

Pre-K through third grade teachers, as well as staff needed to support the hybrid model, are scheduled to report back to work locations Feb. 22. Superintendent Jesus Jara said in late January those employees would receive priority to get vaccinated.

The school district has indicated it intends to transition more grade levels to a hybrid model during a second semester, but there’s no timeline for when that could happen.

In the memo, Jones encouraged employees who haven’t registered to do so and for those who received a link to make an appointment to “schedule it as soon as possible.”

“The NSHE Vaccination POD will soon be moving on to other groups of Nevadans and the availability for CCSD employees may become limited,” she wrote.

There is no requirement for district employees to be vaccinated.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mary Hynes contributed to this report.