During Bucks County Visit, Governor Says School Staff Vaccinations Going Well

While there is growing discontent in the Philadelphia suburbs over vaccine distribution, Gov. Tom Wolf visited Bucks County Friday to announce vaccination efforts for school staff was going well.

Earlier this month, Wolf’s administration and the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force designated that Pennsylvania’s initial batch of 94,600 single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines would be administered to school staff. The state received another 13,000 doses, bringing the total to 107,600 doses.

Next week, the state plans to ask for another 13,000 Johnson & Johnson doses.

The “vast majority” of pre-K to grade 12 educators and school staff who want to get vaccinated will have been administered their dose by the end of the month, the governor’s office said.

The vaccination efforts were handled by local intermediate units, including the Bucks County Intermediate Unit in Doylestown Township. Public and non-public school staff from around the county have been traveling to Doylestown to get their vaccine.

“This special vaccination initiative is moving incredibly swiftly thanks to the tremendous work of the intermediate units, school districts, Pennsylvania National Guard, and state agencies,” said Wolf. “This has been an incredibly challenging year, and the success of these vaccine clinics is another reminder that Pennsylvanians are rising to the challenge.”

Wolf inspected the Bucks County site Friday afternoon and talked with top officials.

Amy Stribling, the Bucks County Intermediate Unit head start site assistant, received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as Wolf and gathered media observed.

Between the 4,700 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses and a smaller county-led effort to vaccine Phase 1A-qualified schools staff, more than 6,600 school staff have received pricks by the end of this week.

“The Bucks IU is grateful to the governor and other partners in the commonwealth for setting aside more than 7,000 vaccines for Bucks County school employees and contractors,” said Dr. Mark Hoffman, the executive director of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. “As a result of the commonwealth’s efforts, our Bucks County students, their families, and school staff are safely assured that in-person instruction can continue in our schools. The Bucks IU is honored to be a part of this historic effort to vaccinate all school employees and contractors.”

There are an estimated 10,000 school staffers in Bucks County.

Dr. Charles Lentz, superintendent for the New Hope-Solebury School District, spoke on behalf of the county’s 13 superintendents and technical centers directors.

Lentz thanked the state for efforts to vaccinate school staff and get students back in the classrooms, adding county agencies have assisted throughout the pandemic. He noted that last year superintendents thought the closures would only last a short time, but COVID-19 caused those closures and disruptions to last much longer.

“The decisions made through this process have not been easy, but we have been positioned to make them in an informed way,” he said.

Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), told reporters his organization supports the efforts to getting vaccines to school staff and expand efforts to get students back in classroom.

“PSEA members have gone above and beyond to teach and serve our students,” Askey said. “But we want to be with our students – in school and in person. The vaccination program that Gov. Wolf and the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force created will help to get our schools open and our students learning.”

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero thanked the governor for setting school staff up for vaccinations.

“Thank you for the work you’ve done,” he said to local school officials and the intermediate unit.

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