GREAT BARRINGTON — To the disappointment of some in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, the Great Barrington Board of Health declined once and for all at its meeting last week to declare a mandate for COVID vaccination for school children in the district.
The board argued at two consecutive meetings earlier this month about the wisdom of a vaccine mandate, but ultimately came down on the side of restraint amid concerns expressed by board chair Michael Lanoue on the purported risks and efficacy of COVID vaccines for children.
The other two members of the health board, including pediatrician Ruby Chang, advocated firm language recommending vaccines in lieu of mandates. Dr. Joseph Cooney, a family practice physician in Stockbridge, agreed.
See Edge video below of the January 11 meeting of the Great Barrington Board of Health. Fast forward to 12:30 to view the discussion on COVID vaccines for schoolchildren:
The Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee had sent a letter to the health board in late November advising that panel of a proposed vaccine policy for students and looking for guidance in advance of a forum the school committee was holding on December 8 to gather community feedback on encouraging vaccines for all, but only requiring them for students who wished to participate in extracurriculars.
Students with a valid religious or medical excuse would have been exempted from the mandate. Faculty and staff must be vaccinated unless they, too, have a valid religious or medical exemption.
At the December 8 forum, at least two dozen people spoke, with the majority voicing opposition to any vaccination mandate. The school committee wound up approving a policy that only required unvaccinated students to participate in weekly pool testing to participate in the district’s extracurricular activities.
After its January 11 meeting, the board of health then answered the school committee’s request in a one-page letter recommending that parents “immediately seek education and advice from medical professionals in order to determine their child’s health risk and the most appropriate course of action.”
See video below, courtesy of Community Television of the Southern Berkshires, of the January 13 meeting of the Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee. Fast forward to 34:25 for the discussion that included a COVID update and a discussion of the recent letter from the Great Barrington Board of Health:
“It is important that parents of school-aged children understand the risks and benefits of vaccination,” the letter said. “Understanding treatment options after infection may help with the ability to make a decision without compulsion.”
School committee member Sean Stephen of Stockbridge, who had earlier advocated for a student vaccine mandate to participate in extracurriculars, characterized the board of health’s letter as “very disappointing,” though he did not elaborate.
Berkshire Hills parent Erica Mielke told the school committee she attended both board of health meetings and “it was shocking, to say the least” and “very upsetting and disappointing.”
“I want to thank the school committee members who were on that call because, except for a few times when Dr. Chang was allowed to speak by the chair, it felt like the school committee members and Peter [Dillon] were the voices of science in the room,” Mielke said.
In other COVID-related news, the aforementioned Berkshire Hills Superintendent Peter Dillon told the school committee that the COVID positivity rate in Berkshire County for the week of January 10 was 1,600 per 100,000 residents, with a relatively high infection rate of between 12 and 15 percent.
“So we’re seeing a lot of this,” Dillon said. “We’re seeing it, particularly in the high school, where there have been a lot of cases and we’re seeing cases with staff.”
Adding to the gravity of the situation, Dillon said, is that there is also a “stomach bug” going around that has parallel symptoms, so some students and employees “are being smart and deliberate in not coming to school.”
“They have symptoms that present like COVID but they end up not being COVID,” Dillon explained. ” Then there are lots of people who potentially have COVID and are asymptomatic, so it’s a challenging and confusing time.”
Dillon also wanted to give a “shout-out” to the school district’s nursing staff, which he said is “really working around the clock on this.” Some of the pool testing data is coming in at odd hours. “They’re working through the weekends often to reach out to families and parents and, from a community perspective, the state shifted some and there’s a lot less contact tracing than there has been, so more of that is falling on [the nursing staff],” Dillon said.
Finally, Jonathan Bruno, the district’s director of teaching and learning, announced that Berkshire Hills recently received a six-figure grant for social and emotional learning and mental health. The funds came from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“So that’s $260,000 that we are going to use to work on a pilot for universal mental health screening, as well as continuing to develop our multi-tiered system of social, emotional and behavioral mental and well-being support,” Bruno said.
“It’s a really big deal and thanks to Jon and the team that helped him,” Dillon said.
