According to an internal email, the Hudson School District is incentivizing teachers to get vaccinated. The email, shared by local medical freedom activist Jessica Klatt, outlines how those who get vaccinated will automatically receive five sick days to use if they contract a breakthrough infection or need to quarantine.
The email reads, “If you provide proof of vaccination (photocopy of a completed COVID19 vaccination card) to Human Resources you will receive FIVE COVID19 days to be used if you have a breakthrough infection or if you need to stay home to care for a dependant who is quarantined by Public Health or is sick with COVID 19.” The email went on to say that they hope the incentive will “give peace of mind” to their staff who are “fully vaccinated and are still negatively affected by it.”
The email went on to list another incentive to become fully vaccinated: weekly drawings for personal days during the school year. The school district wrote it will be giving “one personal day away EVERY WEEK for those eligible employees.”
The email, from the unnamed Hudson School District’s chief human resources officer, said that in order to participate in the five COVID days and the weekly drawings, staff needs to send in a photocopy of their COVID vaccine card, where it will be in their “protected health care file cabinets.”
A later email announces that a staff member won a personal day off in the first weekly drawing but the person’s name would not be shared due to “confidentiality of health information.” The school district also said that over 400 of its staff had turned in vaccination cards.
The email also shared that numerous staff members “already used the extra 5 COVID19 days” which was “another reason to get the vaccine.”
In the September 13 school board meeting, Hudson School District Superintendent Nick Ouellette shared that ten Hudson staff members had tested positive for COVID and of those ten, nine of them were vaccinated. Ouellette said the school district was watching those cases and expressed his concern about them. He said staff members had mild cases of COVID, “which would lead us to believe that the vaccine works.”
He said that both vaccinated and unvaccinated staff were required to stay at home for ten days after testing positive for COVID so that has created some staffing issues for the school district.
Ouellette also said that there were a total of 74 cases in the district, including the ten staff members. He alluded to children being sent to school while symptomatic and said that was a “challenge” for the district.
– – –
Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
