COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County School District One partnered with Prisma Health to help vaccinate teachers and staff on Friday at Gamecock Park.
A little over a week ago, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster made the announcement that teachers would be placed in the Phase 1B group in order to receive the vaccine. On March 8th, Phase 1B officially began in the Palmetto State.
On Friday, Prisma Health allowed teachers from Richland County School District One to get vaccinated at their mass vaccination site near Williams-Brice Stadium at Gamecock Park.
Dr. Craig Witherspoon, Superintendent of Richland One, says this was part of the school district's Preferred Days. The school district closed schools and offices so teachers and staff had time to get the vaccine.
"Working with Prisma Health, in terms of getting all of our staff vaccinated, it gives us an opportunity in these days, today and tomorrow, to get all of our staff vaccinated," said Dr. Witherspoon.
Friday was the first opportunity for teachers and staff to get the first dose of the vaccine. This included teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and more employees. They'll get their second dose between 21 to 42 days after their first dose.
The superintendent says this gives them the opportunity to help vaccinate employees before transitioning to their next phase plan to give staff piece of mind as they have more in-person learning. Students who want to will transition from a two-day hybrid schedule to a four-day and eventually a five-day in-person schedule in March.
"We know the importance of the vaccine and allowing us to do that. We're very appreciative of the partnership with Prisma Health to bring this day into fruition," explained Dr. Witherspoon.
The school district started talked with Prisma Health about having this setup a couple of weeks ago. According to Dr. Witherspoon, 80 percent of their staff have said they wanted to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Witherspoon says the school district wants to do their part to help the community in helping make the health crisis better.
"We have over 4,000 employees. That doesn't include part-time and so forth, but over 4,000 full-time employees. We know with our staff receiving the vaccine, we live in a community," said Dr. Witherspoon. "That helps not only in the school system in terms of getting everyone vaccinated, but that helps in the community."
Amy Kennedy, the manager of management engineering and health systems engineering at Prisma Health, is also at Gamecock Park the site lead for the Midlands for vaccine clinics.
"Each of our clinics has at least one school district that they are partnered with," said Kennedy. "So here at Gamecock Park and then our sister site at Baptist downtown, we are partnered with Richland One. That's 2,500 teacher and staff that they anticipated would get vaccinated."
Kennedy believes it's critical to vaccinate all essential workers.
"The vaccine has proven to be effective at decreasing the spread of the virus. We are just really ready and anxious to get even more vaccine supply in our hands so that we can vaccinate the rest of the school districts as well as all of the essential workers that are in 1B," explained Kennedy.
At this point Kennedy says they don't have any available 1b appointments. They're looking at the vaccine supply they are receiving next week and calculating what new appointments could be made available.
Prisma Health is allowing teachers and staff who received the vaccine on Friday to find a time that's convenient for them to set up an appointment. They would consider having another event like they had at Gamecock Park to help teachers and staff get their second dose if it was helpful to them.
Kennedy hopes they'll receive more doses of the vaccine in the future so they can help vaccinate more people in the community.
Carlos Williams, the Assistant Principal, H.B. Rhame Elementary School, received his first dose of the vaccine on Friday. He says the whole process and customer service was great with Prisma Health.
"Definitely want to make sure that you're protected so that you can get back to the students, which is at the heart of what we do everyday in school, but at the same time making sure that we're able to do that in a safe way so that everybody is protected," said Williams.
The assistant principal says the process was great because it took the pressure off of finding an appointment to get the vaccine.
Williams says it's been a challenging year but is hopeful the vaccine will allow staff to be able to see their students.
"They need us. They need to be in the building with us face-to-face instruction daily so that we can raise their achievement levels," explained Williams.
Williams hopes to see the kids' smiling faces soon back in the classroom.