All Burlington Schools Employees Face Vaccine Mandate

BURLINGTON, MA — All unvaccinated Burlington Public Schools employees have two weeks to get their first shot or they could face unemployment.

The School Committee last week unanimously approved a measure mandating all staff members be vaccinated, saying employees must receive their first shot by Oct. 5 — one day after the district's COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

Anyone with a valid religious or medical exemption must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. The initial policy stated any unvaccinated employee who does not have direct contact with students would be able to simply be tested every week, but the School Committee removed that option for anyone without exemptions.

"Whether you work in a classroom or whether you work in a building you're bound to run into students at some point, and I think the policy doesn't have any teeth without it being a mandate," School Committee member Christine Monaco said.

It's unclear how many staff members this will change anything for. Superintendent Eric Conti estimated his teacher vaccination rate was "well into the high 90 percents."

Weekly testing will also take place for employees who get vaccinated until they fully inoculated, typically thought to be a couple weeks after the second dose of Moderna and Pfizer.

The School Committee was reminded by an attorney that any changes that affect the working conditions of staff must be bargained with the unions.

You can watch the entire School Committee meeting on Burlington Cable Access Television here.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Burlington Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.