School Board Votes to Start Weekly COVID-19 Testing for Unvaccinated Staff, Students on Wednesday

The Pasadena Unified School District Board voted Thursday to require weekly COVID-19 testing for its unvaccinated staff and students starting September 1, amid public clamor for District action two weeks after schools reopened for in-person classes.

Pasadena Unified joins Culver City Unified School District as being the only two public school districts in California which have required all eligible students aged 12 and older to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

In a series of actions, the Board voted to:

• Place mobile testing teams at schools for students and employee testing

• Require all students under age 12 to get weekly COVID-19 tests

• Require all student-athletes to get weekly COVID-19 tests; and

• Require that students age 12 and older show proof of vaccination or take weekly tests.

• Require all unvaccinated employees to be tested weekly starting Wednesday.

The proof of vaccination requirement for staff and eligible students will be adhered to prior to October 15, according to Ana Maria “Ria” Apodaca, Director of PUSD’s Health Programs.

In the discussion, several board members raised their concerns about the requirement for parents’ informed consent.

Board Member Tina Fredericks suggested that an opt-out approach on the matter should be considered to speed up completing the process.

“Why not have an opt-out approach, in that way it would be quicker to get this going rather than waiting for 9,000 permissions … to come in,” Fredericks said.

Currently, Apodaca said the PUSD does not have a plan in place for students whose parents do not give consent for weekly testing.

“We would have to work with leadership to determine how we are going to handle that. Specifically, we can also increase our measures to add additional protection if needed for any situation where we feel safety measures need to be increased,” Apodaca said.

Dr. Elizabeth Blanco, PUSD Chief Academic Officer said the District cannot do away with the informed consent requirement as COVID-19 testing is a medical procedure.

“This is a medical procedure that we are asking parents to participate in and so I think we need their informed consent to be able to do that,” Blanco said.

“We should cross that bridge later and see how many students or parents really don’t want to comply, without trying to approach it from a way of mandating or taking away someone’s rights,” Blanco said.

Blanco expressed optimism that the school community will comply with the testing requirements.

Meanwhile, Apodaca said there will be enough resources and staffing for the weekly testing which will start next week. Apodaca said PUSD’s goal is to have a testing team at every site for multiple days throughout the week.

The board also discussed mandating vaccines for students 16-years-old and above, considering the recent full approval given to Pfizer vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Board Member Kimberly Kenne suggested that the District require students 16-years-old and above to get vaccinated but the board took no action after Blanco said the PUSD is still awaiting direction from the California Department of Health on the matter.

“We usually wait for direction from the California Department of Health to tell us which vaccines are mandated and that’s how we make changes.”

“I think that we would probably want to seek legal advice before we support that recommendation,” Blanco said.

Separately, the Board unanimously approved a contract not exceeding $2.5 million with Edlogical Group Corp. for the healthcare staffing costs related to COVID-19 testing and monitoring for the PUSD for this school year.