Manteca Unified trustees will not be joining Ripon Unified — at least for now — in adopting a resolution asking the state to back off its proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students and staff and to simply recommend shots instead.
Following a spirited — and sometimes cantankerous— exchange with those in attendance at Tuesday’s board meeting, the resolution proposed by trustee Stephen Schluer was taken off the table. It will be brought back up at a December meeting.
Whether they shared sentiments with those against the pending mandate, there were board members — along with staff — that stressed the bottom line: Given Manteca Unified is part of the state school system there is no other option but to follow what the state mandates as it constitutes a legal requirement.
The point of contention is the state’s plans made clear by Gov. Newsom to move to a mandated vaccine requirement with exceptions carved out under strict medical and religious exemptions. Given the perimeters for it to take place such as FDA approval for various age groups, it would likely go into effect for the next school year starting in August.
Currently 83 percent of the district’s roughly 1,200 certificated staff — teachers, administrators, guidance counselors and others — are fully vaccinated.
Some 77 percent of the classified support staff is also fully vaccinated.
The vaccine mandate, should it occur, will join nine other mandated vaccines students must have. Six are required before they enroll in kindergarten and three others are required by the time they are in the seventh grade.
Teachers also have certain vaccine requirements they must meet before they are hired.
All of the vaccine mandates are imposed by Sacramento.
Typically they are phased in such as a recent whooping cough vaccine mandate. That said, there has never been what is essentially an emergency mandate in the middle of a pandemic. Instead of phasing it in over multiple years, the state mandate is designed to be implemented all at once.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
