Disclaimer: The results shared are from an anonymous poll of 29 Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) teachers and staff.

As Ventura County enters the red COVID-19 tier, schools are pushing for reopening along with gyms, indoor restaurants and movie theaters. The newly entered tier and restrictions allow for restaurants to operate indoors at 25%, malls to 50% and gyms can open indoors at 10% capacity. This introduction of the red tier also means schools can reopen in person.

The decline in cases can be partly attributed to the regulation of the Pftizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines to the general public that meets the requirements. As of Wednesday, March 24, Ventura County administered 362,324 doses of the vaccine and the numbers are rapidly increasing daily. 

Teachers and administrators alike are pushing to get back in the classroom, as well as Newsom’s new school funding incentive looming over the district’s head. This new legislation is a plan to encourage a higher percentage of in-person learning. The target date for California schools to reopen is April 1 and the funding will decrease by 1% every day in-person school does not commence. 

The new legislation does not require teachers to be vaccinated, which only 37.9% of Foothill Tech faculty agree with, but 68.9% of staff shared that they would feel safer if teachers were required to be vaccinated. 

The state of California has begun to enforce additional steps to prioritize teacher vaccinations, such as the promise of 75,000 doses a week set aside for educational personnel. There are plenty of teachers jumping for vaccine appointments, but many still choose not to because of the side effects, personal preferences and the unknowns of this brand new vaccine. 

Out of the 29 Foothill Tech teachers who were interviewed, 89.6% either plan to or have already gotten the first dose of the vaccine. When asked if teachers and staff would feel more comfortable on campus if students were vaccinated, 65.5% felt it was not a necessary measure, because “children and young adults may be less infected with COVID-19.