Public comment at meeting was in opposition to policy
Come February 1, 2022, all employees of the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs at the end of the current school year.
In addition, as of July 1, 2022, all employees of contractors working for the school district will need to be vaccinated.
Both of those things are part of a policy (#6141) adopted 6-1 by the Board of Education on November 4. Board Member Kristen O’Dell was the lone ‘no’ vote. The adoption came after nearly an hour of public comment.
The policy did not address any vaccination rules for students of any age.
The meeting started with the HF-FMCSD’s attorney, Julie Shaw, reading a statement noting that the policy was developed in order to make sure the district “can continue to contract with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)”.
“We are a federal contractor,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy said on Monday, “and we have to abide by their rules.”
Sheboy also noted that there is a recent New York State mandate for teachers; it allows for unvaccinated teachers to be tested weekly for COVID-19. The HF-FMCSD has completed two weeks of that testing. Working with Cornerstone Family Healthcare, at the on-site testing there also continue to be vaccination opportunities within the school district weekly.
“The overwhelming majority of our employees — over 85 percent — are fully vaccinated,” Sheboy said Monday.
Per the district’s new policy, employees still have the opportunity to submit paperwork for a religious or medical exemption for the vaccine requirement; that is due to Sheboy by January 1, 2022.
When it came time to vote, O’Dell commented that she is “pro-vaccine, but against mandates”. She said she’d spoken to quite a few parents of HF-FMCSD students in recent weeks who were also against it, with them often wondering if vaccine mandates might “trickle down to kids”.
She also said she was against the policy “because it feels like it is more of a financial decision than a health and safety decision”. She also noted she’d like to hear from staff and faculty about the policy — “we could lose some great employees,” she said.
Other board members spoke in favor of it.
“This is a reasonable policy, and it’s coming from the federal government based on the work of credible scientists and doctors,” Board Member Ned Kopald said. “We should not get bogged down by the politics that are tearing this country apart.”
Board Member Aaron Falk thanked all of the public who spoke, but said: “Our job is to protect our district. To survive we have to adapt to different federal rules; this is one of them. We can’t afford to take the risk of losing West Point students.”
Eight community residents spoke — Rebecca Stewart, Wesley Kemp, Charlene Yehl, Steven Walker, Nicole Kelly, Danielle Armstrong, Krista Bilodeau and Christine McCormick. Their complete comments are available to listen to via the YouTube link to the meeting, available at www.hffmcsd.org.
Among the questions/comments they made:
Bilodeau — “I’m a little worried if we give in to this to get the next West Point contract … six months from now West Point will say ‘now students’. It makes me very nervous as a parent.”
Armstrong — “I hope and trust that you are giving this enough heavy, weighted consideration. Mandating can become a slippery slope.”
Kemp — “I am against this for my kids, I would rather remove them from the school system.”
Walker — “Is this a HIPAA violation? Have you spoken to the staff? Is this with Department of Health encouragement? It seems like more of a financial decision than concern for employee health.”
Kelly — “I think this is a fear tactic, using COVID, to implement a policy when it is clearly financial. We should not be playing politics with our staff.”
Stewart — “We should do more investigative work on this vaccine before we require employees to take it.”
Yehl — “Can we unmask our kids if all the staff is vaccinated? Do we get extra funding for mandating the vaccine?”
McCormick — She read a letter she’d written to the board against “inoculating individuals”, calling it a “loss of freedoms” issue.
Two letters were read by Board President Anne Lawless, from Jesse and Robert Duvall (calling a mandate “ignorant”) and Jeanne Lent (saying vaccination decisions “should be made by individuals and their doctors, not government”).
While the board nor Sheboy did not answer the questions specifically and respond to comments, they did clarify several times that the adoption of the policy is in response to the district’s status as a federal government contractor. Law-less and others noted that their first consideration is always the health and safety of school personnel and students.
NOTE: Board President Anne Lawless said at the meeting that the email address the board has used for the last 18 months (reopening@hffmcsd.org) has been shut down now that the board is using a Zoom platform which allows for public participation in the current use of virtual meetings. The Zoom links for meetings are posted the day of board sessions.
