Salem Schools To Intensify Efforts To Lift Student Vaccine Rates

SALEM, MA — As multiple Salem School Committee members expressed support for a possible future coronavirus requirement for all students and staff, in the short term the focus will be on intensifying outreach to the vaccine-hesitant — especially among demographic populations where teen vaccine rates are lower in the city.

Superintendent of Schools Steve Zrike and Chief of Opportunity and Resource Chelsea Banks unveiled vaccination clinics intended for every school in November in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's expected emergency-use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds this week.

Zrike presented a process at Monday night's school committee meeting that could eventually lead to a full vaccine mandate for students and staff, which included full Food & Drug Administration authorization for the age group in question, a Salem Board of Health vote endorsing the mandate, and a requirement that would apply to both students and staff (with religious and medical exemptions). He noted Amherst-Pelham and Cambridge as the only two state districts that have taken definitive steps toward a full student and staff mandate at this time.

"We know that this is the only way that we can ensure the health of safety of our community," Zrike said of much higher school vaccination rates. "And more importantly, to move beyond all the mitigation strategies. They are annoying. The masks, and all the other distancing, and all the other gymnastics we've had to do.

"We want to move away from that in time. And the only way to do that is to continue to push vaccinations for everyone in the community."

The school committee voted unanimously last week to require vaccinations for all age-eligible students participating in "high-respiration" extracurricular activities, such as sports, band and chorus, beginning with the start of the winter season on Dec. 1.

Zrike said he has arranged plans to have his own children — ages 8 and 11, who have both already had COVID — to get vaccinated at the first available opportunity in the coming weeks.

Zrike and Banks did note that of Salem's relatively low teen vaccination rates — 44 percent for those ages 16 to 19 and 67 percent for those ages 12 to 15 — rates are especially low among the Latino and African-American communities.

"Public health needs may be in conflict with our goals of creating more equitable outcomes in our system if students opt out of school because they are unwilling to be vaccinated," Zrike allowed in the report.

School Committee member Manny Cruz said that he will eventually support a vaccine mandate, but is worried about sagging rates and resistance among certain student demographics.

"You have a committee that's really in agreement with what the best way forward out of the pandemic is," Cruz said. "It's really about the risks and those equity strategies that need to be put in place.

"It is clear to me that the outreach is an area of significant (needed) improvement for us, especially when I see Bentley out of all of our schools is at 43 percent opt-in just for testing. We all know the demographic data. It's primarily Latino students who are primarily attending the Bentley."

School Committee member Dr. Kristin Pangallo said that while no requirement would be imminent until the vaccine receives full authorization for younger students, there must be an urgency to get more students vaccinated.

"One thing that I think we should remember is that I agree with your assessment, Dr. Zrike, that our low rates are telling us about our relationships and that we have to do some more work there," she said. "We also don't have time to fix that problem before we need to get our kids vaccinated."

Cruz backed Zrike's recommendation that any student vaccine requirement be tied to a full staff vaccine requirement. Currently, staff members have the option of being vaccinated or being tested every two weeks. Banks said 92 percent of Salem Public School staff is vaccinated with about 70 staff members remaining unvaccinated.

"I just want to be clear that we're going to throw the kitchen sink at it as a city and as a school district," concluded Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who is also the school committee chairperson. "At some point we may need to explore a policy — once the vaccine has been fully authorized — to require this."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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