Published On: March 5, 2021
We are writing to share a few important updates, including two opportunities to help BTU educators and K-12 staff get vaccination appointments. For both of these options, you must use your BPS email address to verify that you are a current school employee.
  1. For school employees who are currently eligible (those that are 65+, have two or more comorbidities and ABA’s/Behavioral Health professionals), please use this link to get appointments for next week. In addition, the district is following up with those who are currently eligible for priority slots. Use your BPS email to register.
  2. Bostonians of color currently eligible and all educators living in Boston can sign up for the Reggie Lewis Center clinic on March 17. Use your BPS email to register.
We are hopeful that we will be able to open the BTU clinic once we get vaccines from the state. The city and district are working on getting more priority slots for educators as well, as more vaccinations become available. We hope to have more updates soon on these efforts early next week.

You can still try to look for appointments directly at CVS vaccination sites (some members have suggested staying in the waiting room until you get an appointment and trying different locations) and also at the state site.  

The city has updated its employee policy this week to allow for school staff to have one hour of paid time off, twice, within 40 days to be used for vaccinations,in addition to the one hour every 14 days for Covid testing. School leaders have been directed to help educators who get appointments to find coverage for when they are getting vaccinated if it happens during a school day.  

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted this afternoon 8-3 to give the Commissioner authority to determine “whether students can safely attend classes in an in-person setting with health and safety requirements…” and the authority to “…notify districts that they may no longer use one or more of the altnerative education models, in whole or in part, to meet the minimum school year and structured learning time requirements.”  Despite our consistent position that students should be back in person as quickly and safely as possible, we find this mandate and vote to be ill-timed and poorly conceived. Read our full statement on this vote.  

In positive news, the MCAS standardized tests have been postponed.  We do not know for how long, but to get more involved our MCAS advocacy efforts, please contact BTU political organizer Roberto Jimenez.

We are continuing to work with the city, district and other partners to get BTU educators and school staff vaccinated as quickly as possible. We will keep everyone posted on the implications of the BESE vote today as more details become available.  

We hope everyone has a restful weekend.

Be safe,
President Tang, BTU Officers and staff 

Share This Story!