Franklin Regional board bans using schools for covid-19 vaccine clinics

Although it’s now recommended that children 5 and older get covid-19 vaccines, they won’t be able to get one in a Franklin Regional School District building.

The school board voted 7-2 this week to ban the use of district facilities as covid-19 vaccination sites for students. While other schools in the region have served as clinic sites in recent days, Franklin Regional directors expressed their division on the issue at this week’s meeting in Murrysville.

“This isn’t an access issue,” board member Deb Wohlin said, adding she didn’t think there was any need for the district to serve as a vaccine site. “We have been given enough responsibility with unfunded mandates. We’re not a medical facility. Why would we want to take this on?”

“I believe that vaccination is the best defense we have against covid,” said board member Paul Scheinert, who along with Bill Yant voted against the resolution. “And there are other school districts that have done this, and it’s been quite successful.”

More than 1,000 students in the North Allegheny School District registered for optional vaccination clinics Nov. 16 and Monday at Ingomar Middle School, and the West Jefferson Hills School District has also hosted a recent vaccination clinic after federal approval of low-dose vaccinations for ages 5-11.

The state’s health department directed vaccine providers in August to support clinics at schools and universities, if a district or university requests it.

West Jefferson spokesman Jeff Nelson said the district was approached by a local pharmacy, Pleasant Hills Apothecary, which ran vaccination clinics for district staff and the community last spring.

“They contacted us about the possibility of hosting a clinic for 5- to 11-year-olds in the community,” Nelson said.

Yant said the district should offer the clinics as an option, but pushed back against any suggestion the vaccine would somehow be mandatory or given without parents’ consent.

“I don’t know where that information comes from, but it is not accurate,” he said.

School director Gregg Neavin agreed with several other directors that anyone in the district who wants to get their child vaccinated has plenty of options.

“I got my booster,” Neavin said. “If there was a disaster here, we’d hand out water and food, we’d provide shelter. But I don’t see a need for us to be a vaccination location in terms of public service. There are plenty of medical facilities to do that.”