FERGUSON, Mo. — Exactly one year after the district announced they would send students home for virtual learning, Ferguson-Florissant School District hosted a mass vaccination clinic for teachers on the first day of eligibility.
Every time the doors to the gymnasium swing open, another teacher walks away from McClure South-Berkeley High School with a vaccine.
"It's good to see teachers who I've only seen on Zoom for a year, you know we're seeing face-to-face again even though we're all masked up in the building," Ferguson-Florissant's Kevin Hampton said.
Hampton said they will vaccinate about two-thirds of the district's teachers this week, with more than 450 people coming through Monday.
They opened the doors to some surrounding districts too, offering teachers like Bailey Clawson a Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"I just ran," Clawson said after she received the robocall invitation Monday afternoon.
A teacher in the Normandy Schools Collaborative, Clawson jumped at the chance because she knew this would be her best option after weeks of checking elsewhere online.
"We have been at work refreshing pages just trying to find pharmacies around the county and in the city that are just doing teachers or just doing the eligible tiers. I have not been lucky, so I was really excited to get over here in time," she said.
In his Monday morning briefing, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the county health department is not ready to move forward and will still prioritize people in previous tiers until they have more vaccines, though he hopes to make an announcement in one week about a plan for teachers.
But with her J&J shot, Clawsom said she's covered with a single dose.
Ferguson-Florissant plans to bring some students back to in-person learning on March 24.
Holt High School will play host to a large vaccination event for educators from St. Charles County this Saturday, March 20. The event is in partnership with the St. Charles County Health Department. There will be about 1,000 doses given to a random selection of people, who must be preregistered with the county.