Mayor Carlo DeMaria has not given up on his plan to try to get teachers in the Everett Public Schools (EPS) vaccinated ahead of schedule so as to enter into a smoother and safer return to hybrid education.
At the School Committee meeting Feb. 16, and reiterated this week, the mayor said he is continuing to plead with Gov. Charlie Baker to allow Everett to be a pilot program in the state when it comes to teacher vaccination.
“I’m still not giving up hope,” he said. “We did face a setback on our plan to vaccinate teachers, but I’m not giving up hope the governor would allow just the City of Everett in a pilot program to vaccinate,” he said. “We would accommodate those 75-plus and 65-plus, those with two co-morbidities and also vaccinate our teachers. We are running into situations where we have our vaccination clinic and we do have ample spots open. We could instead be vaccinating teachers. There’s pressure to get teachers vaccinated even though information was shared that school children aren’t a contributor to the spread.”
Supt. Tahiliani is joining the mayor in that push as well, and also said they are formulating a wait list of teachers were there any leftover vaccine available that had been unused at the end of any clinic.
The Everett Teacher’s Association (ETA) is working with the Everett Public Schools and the mayor on that wait list, in addition to pushing for vaccination as well.