Orangeburg County School District employees get $200 with proof of vaccine

Trustees approved the payments on Tuesday for employees who can show proof of being vaccinated. Employees have until Oct. 18 to get fully vaccinated to be eligible for the incentive.

Trustee Sylvia Bruce-Stephens said the idea is a good one intended to keep everyone safe.

“When you don’t take that vaccine, you put my life in danger too,” Bruce-Stephens said. “We have to do something. The board has to be the one that steps forward and says this is what we are going to do.”

Trustees generally agreed the idea was worth approving.

“I think that is an excellent idea,” trustee Dr. Debora Brunson said. “Since we have come together as a district, we have not had the opportunity or the ability to reward our employees with any kind of incentives.”

Trustee Idella Carson expressed concerns about employees who cannot get the vaccine due to health concerns or religious reasons.

“It seems we are favoring one over the other. Are we going to punish them because they did not take it?” Carson said. “This is an individual choice.”

Superintendent Dr. Shawn Foster said the incentive, “does not solve all scenarios.”

Carson said she is for giving those who got the vaccine something, but is concerned about discriminating against those who have not gotten the vaccine.

“I toyed with this when making the recommendation for that very reason,” Foster said. “Mrs. Carson, to be perfectly honest, I thought about punishment versus not-punishment. When I think about punishment, it assumes that something is taken away from someone with regards to punishment. This is not taking anything away from anyone.”

He noted the incentive is simply designed to encourage vaccination.

“It is a good question and a fair question,” he said.

Foster said employees who do not feel comfortable showing proof of vaccination will not have to do so. Those employees, however, will not be eligible to receive the $200.

Foster initially proposed an incentive of $150, but trustees agreed it should be raised to $200.

If every employee gets fully vaccinated before the Oct. 18 deadline, the cost to the district will be about $463,540. The money will come from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which is part of the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Foster noted that about 95% of the district’s leadership has been vaccinated.

The district surveyed employees about their vaccination status. Foster said somewhere between 63% and 69% of the district’s employees are vaccinated, which exceeds the state average.

He said ten schools have less than five employees who have not been vaccinated.

Foster also said a recent vaccination clinic was held at the Orangeburg County Fairgrounds. About 244 students were vaccinated at the clinic.