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Region 14 Board of Ed. members resign amid vaccine clinic controversy

The resignations came just days after the board voted to launch an investigation into the vaccine clinic.

WOODBURY, Conn. — Two Region 14 Board of Education members recently resigned, amid controversy surrounding a January 20th vaccine clinic.

Board chairman George Bauer says one of the members resigned due to family reasons, and the other said she felt she was, "not in step with the current administration." The resignations came just days after the board voted to launch an investigation into the vaccine clinic. The Nonnewaug Teacher's Association alleges board members, central office staff, and their spouses were among the first to get vaccinated that day. Once supply ran out, the association says many teachers did not end up being able to get their vaccines.

"I think we had 66 shots for that Wednesday, January 20th and I think about half of those allocated went to some teachers," said Chris York, president of the Nonnewaug Teacher's Association.

"Teachers were really upset when word spread about who was there, other people who were vaccinated that don't spend time with kids," he said.

Superintendent Dr. Joseph Olzacki says the district's covid officer sent two surveys to teachers, secretaries, administration, paraprofessionals, board members, volunteers, and custodians. One, asking them about their interest in the vaccine, and another asking about underlying conditions.

"Everyone who responded was put on the same list, representing every person equally, then the list was sent to the health district," he said.

The clinic was held around the beginning of the state's Phase 1B, right as the state made the decision to only include people 75 and older first. The Department of Public Health says some clinics were able to inadvertently make appointments for people outside of that category, in this case, essential workers. That is how teachers and school staff were able to get vaccinated in the first place. Nicole Jock, a Woodbury mom, says teachers have played an important role through the pandemic, and she believes they should have been among the first in line in general.

"They're basically on the frontlines, so I think they should be getting vaccinated," she said.

The teacher's association says it looks forward to Phase 1B opening back up to essential workers, it wants to see some changes.

"I'd like the process to be more transparent so that the whole staff knows why people were chosen in the order they were chosen. If you go back to the January 4th Board of Ed meeting it was all talk about teachers, staff, paras getting vaccinated. That was all the talk and obviously, we showed up on the day of clinic and we saw, other people there," said York.

Teachers are expected to be able to be vaccinated sometime in early March.

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