Miami-Dade County school employees will receive stipend to get vaccinated
Miami-Dade Public Schools employees will receive a one-time stipend of $275 if they show they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The nine-member School Board unanimously voted in favor of the proposal at its meeting Thursday.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said most of the district’s employees have received one dose of the jab.
“I think this is the right thing. We pretty much have close to 100% of our employees under this protective measure, with the appropriate financial incentive to guarantee that our workforce perhaps becomes the single largest, the first in the country, to be fully immunized. We are very, very close, and I think this will bring us to the finish line,” Carvalho said.
Thursday’s vote will result in the district’s roughly 40,000 full-time and permanent part-time employees receiving a one-time stipend of $275 before the end of the calendar year.
Over the summer, Broward County’s School Board passed a one-time $250 bonus for its employees if they show proof of vaccination by October.
The original Miami-Dade proposal was for only full-time staffers to receive the incentive. The administration amended it to include part-time workers because board members said that would get the district closer to its goal of having all of its employees vaccinated.
“Without all of us, you don’t get it done,” said District 2 Board Member Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall.
In order to receive the money, employees will have to show proof they are fully vaccinated.
As of Wednesday, 525 people — 330 students and 195 employees — have tested positive for COVID since Aug. 13, according to the Miami-Dade Schools’ COVID dashboard.
Carvalho said the spike in the very contagious delta variant of COVID-19 is showing encouraging signs of waning, which brings the district closer to being able to relax some of its coronavirus protocols, including mandating masks for students and staff.
He said Miami-Dade County, which has one of the highest vaccination rates for eligible adults in the state, is experiencing a reduction in COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths. In July, he said, COVID infection rates rose from 76 per 100,000 people to an alarming 739 per 100,000 people.
It’s now 417 per 100,000 people, Carvalho said, and he said he thinks it will continue to decrease as more people in the county become vaccinated. But, he noted, he anticipates a temporary increase in cases over the next few weeks because of gatherings held over the three-day Labor Day weekend.
“This is the data point we’re looking for to reduce existing protocols,” he said.
The district’s mask policy allows parents to opt their children out of the mandate if they receive a medical waiver from a Florida-certified physician. So far, only 79 students out of roughly 325,000, which includes enrollments at traditional public schools and charter schools, have applied for the opt-out, Carvalho said.
The district is reviewing the mandate on a weekly basis. Miami-Dade is one of 13 districts that have defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ July 30 executive order prohibiting student mask requirements, and the issue is the subject of several high-profile lawsuits circulating in state and federal courts.
Carvalho said that despite the declining COVID cases in the county, he considers masks an essential tool in helping slow the spread of the virus. Of the recent infections in the county, 27% are pediatric cases. And, while it’s rare for young people to die or become seriously ill from COVID, it does happen.
“To the parent of that child, it’s 100%, and we shouldn’t minimize that,” Carvalho said.
This story was updated after it was originally published to reflect that the School Board gave final approval to the $275 stipend during its Thursday meeting. The stipend amount was also originally incorrectly reported as $250.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 7:58 PM.
