Sumter School District plans to begin vaccine clinics Wednesday

District expects about 1,200 employees to receive shots during the 2-week process

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Working in conjunction with Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital, Sumter School District will offer four days of teacher and staff COVID-19 vaccine clinics during the next two weeks at the Sumter County Civic Center.

Starting Wednesday, the district will begin the process of vaccinating teachers and other employees in two phases, according to its vaccination plan, which was released earlier this week. As of Friday afternoon, the district estimated about 1,200 employees will take part in the process.

In the two-week plan, Prisma Health nurses will administer the first of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. On the day each employee receives the first vaccination, the health care provider will schedule a specific date for the second vaccination, which can be administered 21 days later.

In Phase 1, on Wednesday and Saturday, elementary school staff and district workers in transportation and food services will receive shots. Employees are split between the two days in alphabetical order, with last names starting with A-M receiving vaccines Wednesday and staff with last names beginning with N-Z getting shots Saturday.

The following week, Phase 2 clinics will be on Wednesday, March 24, and Saturday, March 27, and will include middle and high school staff, maintenance staff and district office and annex employees. Teachers and staff are also split between those two days alphabetically with last names starting with A-M receiving vaccines first on March 24 and last names beginning with N-Z getting shots three days later.

Wednesdays work well in the district's current hybrid/blended learning model because all students are at home on that day each week, learning independently online through prerecorded lessons and assignments. For teachers and staff, Wednesdays are currently reserved for professional development.

The district held a live, virtual Q&A session on its vaccination plan on Wednesday for the first 250 participants who signed up. The session was recorded and later sent to all employees.

As of Friday, a total of 463 district employees indicated in a survey they were not interested in receiving the vaccine or were still unsure, according to district spokeswoman Shelly Galloway.

Frontline essential workers, such as teachers and school staff, who interact daily in close proximity with other people are part of the Phase 1B rollout of the state's COVID-19 vaccination plan, which launched Monday.

A total of 80 district employees received vaccines in Phase 1A, which included health care workers and people 65 and older, among others.

According to Galloway, the district's executive director of communication and community engagement, employees who might commute into Sumter could have also been vaccinated in the counties in which they reside or at other local medical facilities.