Thousands of Fresno County school employees to get first COVID vaccine dose this week

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Educators across Fresno County are slated to get their COVID-19 shots as state lawmakers push to reopen California schools.

Central Unified School district is partnering with United Health Centers to get their employees a line of defense against the virus starting Wednesday.

Superintendent Andrew Alvarado says most of their staff should have their second shot by the end of the month.

"It's roughly around 1,000 employees that have signed up to receive the vaccination," he says.

The clinic comes as Governor Gavin Newsom announced a $6.6 billion incentive to school districts across the state in hopes of getting TK through 2nd-grade students back in school by April.

Alvarado says their plan remains to bring back kindergarten through sixth-grade students in a hybrid model once the county is in the red tier.

"It's looking positive. I think the numbers will go down and we'll be back before the governor's proposal," he says.

Valley Children's will be utilizing the clinic they used to vaccinate their health workers to now vaccinate Fresno Unified employees with the help of the Fresno County public health department.

Fresno Unified students continue to learn from home, and district officials say they're keeping up with updates from the state while negotiating with their labor partners.

City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, however, argues that the governor's bill is a 'scam', and that not enough is being done to get kids back in class.

"This has been going on a year and counting with no real plan to open Fresno Unified. It's a disgrace the school board, Bob Nelson hasn't done anything to get it open."

Bredefeld says there will be a rally scheduled for 10 a.m. at City Hall on Saturday to push Fresno Unified to reopen.