Vernon. The Vernon Township School District began testing unvaccinated employees the week of Oct. 11. Superintendent Karen D’Avino told the school board that the testing regimen was mandated by the governor’s executive order.
The district has 771 total staff members, including substitutes with 239 of them are unvaccinated. D’Avino told the school board on Oct. 21 that all employees have complied with the testing requirement.
“I’m proud of our district,” she said.
Two positive cases were found during the first week of testing. The staff members affected followed the quarantine protocol recommended by the New Jersey Department of Health.
The district is currently using LabQ for the testing but wants to switch to Rover Labs, which will provide all its testing on-site in a separate location. This will allow nurses to care for the medical needs of the district’s children and staff, D’Avino said.
She said Rover wasn’t quite ready to provide the testing accommodations the district needed. Eventually, Rover will help release nurses from Covid-19 responsibilities.
“We’re trying to remove Covid responsibility from nurses because they’re extremely overworked,” D’Avino said.