CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education will consider making a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory among district staff.
The board's Policy and Equity Committee Thursday morning advanced the proposal to the full board. As proposed Thursday, the policy would require all district employees to receive one of the three available COVID-19 vaccines. The would-be deadline for employees to receive those shots was left unclear Thursday morning, as the full board still needs to consider the policy. Staff would have the option to apply for an exemption from the policy.
The measure will go to the full board for discussion next month.
The committee's ruling came days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval status to Pfizer's two-shot COVID-19 vaccine for people 16 years and older, with Moderna also in the process of applying for full FDA approval. According to Ohio law, school districts cannot require vaccines that are not FDA-approved.
Board member Eve Bolton said the decision could risk losing district staff but that it's worth the risk.
"People will quit, and we will lose staff, and I am willing to do that," Bolton said during Thursday's committee meeting.
Committee members stopped short of discussing specifics about requiring the vaccine for students old enough to meet the FDA approval's parameters, but Bolton said she'd be interested in the administration exploring the idea.
Moroski: Could this lead to vaccine requirements for students?
Bolton: I'm not prepared to go there, but I am ready to ask our staff to find out what it would require to mandate it for our teenagers. @wcpo— Courtney Francisco (@CFranciscoWCPO) August 26, 2021
The full board of education will consider the policy at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Sept. 13.
