To:   Transportation Employees

From:  Albert Samora, Executive Director of Transportation Services

Date:   August 10th, 2021

RE:  COVID-19 Vaccinations 

 

I know you have questions about the recent COVID-19 vaccination mandate for Denver. Please remember this is a fluid situation, and I will continue to share information with you as I receive guidance from the District.

As you know, Mayor Michael Hancock and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment announced a new public health order that applies to Denver Public Schools. It calls for all personnel to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30. So what happens if you’re not fully vaccinated by Sept. 30?  This is what the District has to say:

• DPS will work with all of our employee associations to ensure that our employees have clear and fair procedures on how we will be implementing the DDPHE order. 
• DPS is committed to not immediately terminating any employee on September 30 if they are not vaccinated. At a minimum, employees will be provided with warnings and specific timelines about when they need to comply before there would be any consequences for the employee. 
• DPS wants to support every employee in this process. However, DPS will eventually need to consider corrective action and termination of employment if the employee continues to refuse to comply with the DDPHE public health order.  DPS will work with all of our employee associations to discuss what this process will look like.

If you have more questions regarding how DPS is handling the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, including sick leave regarding COVID-19, please read through the FAQs the District has put together.

Based on the most recent CDC data, our partners at Denver Health have assured us that getting vaccinated is the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself and those around you. The COVID-19 vaccinations provide more protection than any other public-health strategy. There have been 346 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered across the U.S., with more than 50% of the U.S. population fully vaccinated. In Colorado, approximately 70% of the adult population has been vaccinated, as well as roughly 60% of teens in Denver. (The vaccine is not yet approved for those under the age of 12.) Information on the safety of the vaccine can be found at CDC.gov.

The vaccine is free and available to anyone in Colorado 12 years old and older. To get your vaccine, you can visit Denver Health clinics on a walk-in basis, or visit the State of Colorado’s vaccine website for more locations.

It is all of our responsibility to help make sure we’re keeping each other safe by following the DPS 5. 

Thank you,

Albert Samora

Executive Director of Transportation Services

Transportation@dpsk12.org