FREEHOLD – Over 600 educators and staff from Freehold Township, Borough and Regional schools received the COVID-19 vaccine thanks to CentraState hospital.
CentraState hospital made it their duty to make sure local educators and school staff were vaccinated as the schools start to offer more in-person learning. With a population of over 10,000 students, Freehold Regional High School District is currently doing in-person classes with their hybrid learning plan. Now that hundreds of its teachers and staff have been vaccinated, the district has considered the possibility of reopening schools for full-time, in-person instruction.
The hospital in total held three events for Freehold Township, Freehold Regional, and Freehold Borough school districts.
According to the New Jersey Education Association, the hospital discovered they had extra dosages of the COVID-19 vaccine. CentraState Community Development Director Jay Robinson quickly reached out to school superintendents and offered the vaccines to the teachers and staff.
“We are thrilled that CentraState has made our members a priority in vaccination distribution,” Denise King, president of Monmouth County Education Association said. “However, we won’t be satisfied until every member in Monmouth County has that same opportunity. Right now, there is a shortage of vaccines, but we are still reaching out to other Monmouth County hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies to hold additional vaccination events for the county’s teachers and educational support staff in other school districts.”
State Senator Vin Gopal (D-11th) has called on Monmouth County hospitals and the Department of Health to hold more vaccination events for other Monmouth County education staff.
For Freehold Regional High School District roughly 520 staff members have been vaccinated. Freehold Township and Freehold Borough staff also received the vaccine, with CentraState vaccinating 132 teachers and staff from Freehold Borough. All educators and staff who received their vaccination from CentraState were administered their second does at the end of February.
