CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There's a new effort underway in the Coastal Bend to make sure as many teachers as possible get their COVID-19 vaccinations.
On Tuesday morning, the focus was on teachers in area school districts outside the Corpus Christi Independent School District. Eligible teachers in the Phase 1-A and 1-B categories were contacted late Monday night after CCISD Superintendent Dr. Roland Hernandez reached out to the 10 area districts in Nueces County.
"We knew that we needed to make a decision to put our educators first, so we took an allocation of 500," Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales said.
"We've been working with the school districts for several weeks about opportunities."
On Tuesday, the opportunity presented itself at Church Unlimited, where teachers from the outlying district's showed up to get their vaccines.
"Getting vaccinated because I'm always around the kids, every day," said Mike Sepulveda, a teacher at Bishop Garriga Middle School.
Sepulveda said it is not rocket science, it's just the right thing to do.
"Well it's important to keep the schools open and if it's safe, the kids can be in school," Sepulveda said. "That's the main goal, is for it to be safe for everybody to be at school."
Those 500 vaccines allocated for teachers mean 500 area teachers will have a bit more peace of mind.
"I don't want to catch that, and this will just keep me safer," said Cheryl Joav, a teacher with the London Independent School District.
It all fell into place as if it had been planned for weeks, right down to the centrally located Church Unlimited.
"I think it was great that the judge reached out and talked to Pastor Bill and doing this. Amazing. And they said yes in an instant, and this is a great location," Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney said. "And the intent here, as the judge said, we want to get educators because we know that they are, I think, what we should call frontline people."
Judge Canales said there will be other similar pop-up vaccination sites in the near future.
"So yeah, we're going to have to get creative," Canales said. "Our administrators are going to have to cover classes. I hope we can start vaccinating substitute teachers. We're going to have to do everything in our power."
So if you're a teacher in the Coastal Bend, keep an eye on vaccine arrivals from the state and on texts and emails from the health district. A vaccine might be coming your way.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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