School staff navigating vaccination road

By working with as many sources as possible, the Cloquet school district is making good progress getting staff members vaccinated for Covid-19.

Superintendent Michael Cary told Cloquet school board members that they started the process with the state efforts, but found that when 42 people traveled to the regional vaccine center in Mt. Iron there wasn't enough vaccine to go around.

More recently, Carlton County has been an incredibly important partner in the process, he said.

"The last couple of weeks the county has gotten doses that they're prioritizing for educators," he said, adding that a bonus of working with the county is that staff can go to the new county garage in Barnum to get vaccinated, versus traveling to Brainard or Mt. Iron.

With help from doctors at Community Memorial Hospital, the district prioritized the list of staff members who wanted the vaccine, taking risk factors into consideration. Cary said they've at least offered shots to everyone on the high priority list, and they're now into the "general population" of school staff members in their 50s and 40s. Staff members getting vaccinated run the gamut from teachers to paraprofessionals, bus drivers, food servers and more.

"We are focusing more on risk factors than job descriptions," he said.

Some staff members have declined to be vaccinated, which is their choice, he said. Others are waiting for now, concerned about the speed of vaccine development.

At least six staff members have also been able to get vaccinations through the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

Covid testing for staff at all of the schools is being conducted every two weeks. They tested Jan. 27 and were scheduled to test again Wednesday, Feb. 10. It takes about 45 minutes to test everyone using saliva tests, Cary said.

As of Monday, all Cloquet students - who didn't opt for full-time distance learning - are back in school now, with the high school in a hybrid model and K-8 grades back to full in-person learning.

"It seems like we're hitting all the spots we need to reopen," said board member Nate Sandman, noting that schools are taking a multipronged approach toward keeping people safe, with testing, vaccinations, masks, sanitizers and more.

In other matters Monday, board members approved Tyler Korby as the new head softball coach.

Cary reported that bids have been received for this summer's Career and Technical Education renovations; he expects a report from the architectural firm at the next board meeting on Feb. 22, when finance director Candace Nelis will also give an update on the budget.