By Breeana Greenberg
The Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees last week called for state public health officials to amend its requirement that unvaccinated workers get tested weekly for COVID-19 by setting an expiration date for the policy.
In a 4-2 vote, with Trustees Krista Castellanos and Amy Hanacek dissenting, the board on Wednesday, July 13, passed a resolution requesting that the state implement an expiration metric or end date to the weekly COVID testing requirement.
“I’m asking for my colleagues to put forth this resolution to request that the weekly testing have an end date and that all people—vaccinated and unvaccinated—are treated fairly in terms of any mitigation of COVID-19 in the future,” Trustee Judy Bullockus said.
Since August 2021, unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated school district workers have been required to test for COVID at least once a week with either a PCR or antigen test.
Calling the current testing policy discriminatory and unnecessary, Board President Martha McNicholas said that she was happy to see the resolution on the agenda. McNicholas added that with test positivity rates for those vaccinated and unvaccinated roughly the same, the numbers support the board’s action.
The resolution will be sent to several state and county officials including Gov., Gavin Newsom, Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomas Aragon, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Board of Education and the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Breeana Greenberg
Breeana Greenberg is the city reporter for the Dana Point Times. She graduated from Chapman University with a bachelor of arts degree in English. Before joining Picket Fence Media, she worked as a freelance reporter with the Laguna Beach Independent. Breeana can be reached by email at bgreenberg@picketfencemedia.com
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