BRADFORD — The Orange East Supervisory Union board has delayed implementation of an employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate until after the current school year and added a test-out option for unvaccinated employees.
At an emergency meeting on Friday, the board voted, 8-3, to rescind the mandate it had just approved at a special meeting on Tuesday. That mandate would have taken effect on March 7, and only allowed religious or medical exemptions, not a testing option.
On Friday, board member Charlie Buttrey joined fellow board members from Thetford, Megan Snider and Donna Pluta, in voting against rescinding the mandate as adopted earlier in the week. But the three later joined eight other members of the board to unanimously support the revised mandate that begins in July.
Board Chairwoman Angeline Alley abstained.
“This is what working together and trying to reach compromise is about,” Buttrey, of Thetford, said following Friday’s unanimous vote. “This is not what I was hoping for (but) it strikes me that this meets in a middle ground.”
Under the requirement, some 800 employees, substitutes, coaches, volunteers and other temporary employees of the supervisory union’s schools in Bradford, Newbury, Topsham and Thetford will be required to either submit proof of vaccination, request a medical or religious exemption or formally decline vaccination to OESU’s human resources department.
The details of the testing, such as the type and the frequency, will be up to OESU administrators, Alley said.
The full OESU board was in attendance at Friday’s hourlong meeting, which began at 11 a.m. and was held via Zoom. In addition, about 150 community members also logged on.
“I am fully vaccinated and I believe in vaccinations, but I do believe that the board is making a huge mistake in trying to bring this issue to a vote and try to impose this at this time,” Bradford resident Bud Haas said during the public comment portion of the meeting held before the board’s vote. “The teachers and the students have gone through a lot of turmoil. This is just adding fuel to the fire to try to put this in effect right now.”
Others, in remarks during the meeting and in emails to the board in advance of the meeting, expressed frustration that employees who have worked hard during the pandemic to keep schools running might lose their jobs over vaccination status.
South Ryegate, Vt., resident Ron Phillips said his wife has worked for OESU schools for 24 years in food service and has worked especially hard these past two years to prepare meals for school children.
“No one even truly appreciates what she’s done,” he said. “I believe testing is (an) appropriate procedure.”
While most of those who spoke opposed a mandate without a test-out option, Lance Mills, a construction technology and residential energy instructor at River Bend Career and Technical Center, said he supported the original mandate and he suspected he’s not alone.
“Folks happy with board decisions tend to not write letters,” he said.
The board called Friday’s emergency meeting after it became clear that community members — including members of the OESU board — were confused by the process at Tuesday’s meeting and had been uncertain about the impact of the board’s action.
Board member Angela Colbeth, of Bradford, was among those who questioned the process.
“When I raised my hand I was under the impression there would be more discussion,” Colbeth said during Friday’s meeting of her vote in favor of the mandate on Tuesday. Colbeth said she realized she “wasn’t really sure what happened” after Tuesday’s meeting.
Colbeth said she is vaccinated and works for an institution that requires vaccination, “but my heart says we can’t make other people do something that we want them to do,” she said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
