Broward school employees can receive a bonus if they get vaccinated by a certain date
Broward County public school employees will receive a one-time $250 bonus if they show proof that they are fully vaccinated by late October.
The nine-member Broward School Board unanimously approved the money during its meeting Tuesday afternoon. The academic year for Broward’s roughly 261,000 students begins Wednesday.
Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright said teachers must show the district they have received both doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Oct. 20 in order to receive the bonus.
However, the move doesn’t go far enough according to the Broward Teachers Union and the Broward Principals and Assistants Association.
The latter group wants the district to mandate all school district employees and students be fully vaccinated as Florida struggles with the more transmissible delta variant of the novel coronavirus, its executive director said in a letter read at Tuesday’s meeting.
“While masks certainly are critical, we know that vaccines make all the difference, and now the CDC has recommended booster shots, so it is really time to make the determination that if you wish to be a Broward County schools employee, you must be vaccinated,” Lisa Maxwell, head of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, wrote. “I also recommend a mandate that includes all students who are eligible to receive a vaccine demonstrate proof just like all other vaccines that are required to attend public school.”
And, Anna Fusco, Broward Teachers Union president, said she and her membership want all employees who aren’t vaccinated to show a negative COVID-19 test result every week.
“It’s for the safety of our students. It’s for the safety of our colleagues. It’s for the safety of everyone. You have that choice, whatever reason your choice is to not get vaccinated,” Fusco told board members. “But they should be responsible for making sure that they are part of the solution of not walking around amongst us with COVID.”
The cost to the district for providing all 27,989 public school employees the $250 bonus is $7.5 million, according to a fact sheet included on the School Board’s meeting agenda. That includes a $19.10 per-payment fringe benefit cost.
The money will come from a U.S. Department of Education COVID-19 recovery grant called the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief fund.
The school district’s general counsel, Marylin Batista, said the incentive does not violate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order prohibiting government entities from asking for proof of vaccination.
This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 6:07 PM.
