This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
The Prince William County School Board this week will consider mandating COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing for school staff.
The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting lists a board item titled “Approval of Resolution for Safe Learning and Safe Workplace.”
Attached to the agenda item is a resolution that would require all school officers, employees and “all persons providing services to PWCS who have direct contact with PWCS students,” to disclose their vaccine status by Nov. 1.
Those who are not fully vaccinated or who refuse to disclose their vaccine status would be required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, the resolution reads.
The resolution notes that about 80 percent of Prince William school division staff is vaccinated against the virus.
“… It is the highest priority of the Prince William County School Board to open its schools for in-person learning while protecting the health and safety of students and staff, and in order to do so, it is necessary to require all PWCS officials, employees, and those persons providing services who have direct contact with PWCS students to be vaccinated,” the resolution reads.
Last month, Superintendent LaTanya McDade said a vaccine mandate is “worth exploring” but that she wasn’t working on implementing one at the time being.
“We do want students not only to return, but we want students to remain in school and to reduce as much as possible any need for quarantine and disruption,” McDade told InsideNoVa in late August. “And we do know that the vaccination is our best defense against not only COVID but also in keeping our students in school.”
The school divisions in Fairfax, Loudoun and Arlington counties have already mandated vaccines or weekly tests for their employees.
