More than 1,700 Montgomery County Public School employees have not reported their vaccination status as of Nov. 15, and the school district is extending their already-pushed-back deadline for reporting before issuing disciplinary measures.
As of the morning of Nov. 15, 1,782 employees had yet to report their vaccination status, according to MCPS Director of Communications Chris Cram.
On Sept. 9, the Montgomery County Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution mandating that all school district staff must be vaccinated against COVID-19, with a deadline of Oct. 29 to electronically report vaccination status. In early October, the deadline was extended to the end of the day on Nov. 15. Now, employees have until 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19 to report, according to Cram.
Out of the 24,588 employees of MCPS, over 22,200 (about 90%) have reported that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Cram. Additionally, since July, MCPS has received 264 requests for religious exemptions and 197 requests for medical exemptions.
The newly extended deadline will be the last chance for those who have not filled out the online form to do so before facing disciplinary measures.
A letter sent on Friday, Nov. 12 to staff who have not yet reported their vaccination status warned that if they ignored the re-extended deadline, they would receive a letter of reprimand and will not be paid for the newly announced Nov. 24 holiday. The letter also stated that MCPS reserves the right to “enact further disciplinary measures up to and including termination,” according to Cram.
While the number of unreported staff may already be lower than the amount reported from the morning of Nov. 15, Cram says the official data of reported and unreported staff will not be available until a later date.
