READFIELD — Kelly Capen believes prioritizing teachers in the vaccine rollout plan is a step in the right direction to get students back to school in person, five days a week.

As a teacher who already teaches in person, five days a week at Whitefield Elementary School in Regional School Unit 12. Capen joined the group of teachers who last week called on Gov. Janet Mills to rethink her vaccine rollout plan, which at first did not prioritize teachers.

She thought President Joe Biden’s call last week to include teachers immediately was the right one.

“We started the school year out in good faith, where teachers were the priority, and medical field workers, in the first round,” Capen recalled of Maine’s prior vaccine plan. “We kept hearing, ‘You guys are next.’ And then mid-plan to change the priority, it felt like we were duped.”

Capen teaches sixth through eighth grades at Whitefield Elementary School.

She has two daughters, ages 9 and 3. In an effort to limit exposure to the coronavirus, Capen’s school-aged daughter is learning fully remote at her sister’s day care center.

Capen said her students have been “great” about complying with the mask guidelines and being sanitary within the school, but she admits there is still the fear of the “what if?”

“The unknown in the fall when we came back, it was unnerving,” she said. “Now data has shown there hasn’t been much spread in the school. And I feel safe in the school, but there is also a risk.

“I am a single mom and my mom, she helps out a lot, she’s 71 …,” Capen added. “You have to consider more than yourself.”

A recent survey from The New York Times showed scientists and doctors agreeing that elementary students should be in school, in-person now.

Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said last week that Maine’s school framework has “had success,” and the state’s guidelines were put in place before the CDC’s nationally.

Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said even with the vaccine rolling out to educators and in some cases, students, the guidelines will stay in place until further notice.

Central Maine teachers collectively feel the vaccine will ease their anxiety over possible family members getting the virus and will be what educators need to feel “safe again” going into their work — a feeling they haven’t had for a year.

FEAR FOR FAMILY MEMBERS

Lizzie Henyan found out in early September that she’s pregnant.

That is ahead of what she and her husband Pat, who were married this summer, had planned. Lizzie did not have the choice to work remotely as a special education teacher at Lisbon Community School.

The Sidney couple have a daughter in second grade who is currently fully remote learning from home. Pat is an alternative educator in Waterville and has taught full-time in person.

“At the time, we decided to keep our daughter home from school, because we didn’t necessarily trust the reopening of schools in September and young children have a hard time following safety protocols,” Lizzie said. “She also has a stepfather and grandparents who are high-risk, so the benefits of her being home outweighed the many risks of sending her to school.”

Both in their 30s, Lizzie and Pat would be unable to receive the vaccine until at least June with Mill’s former plan.

And as a pregnant woman, Henyan was at first skeptical over the safety of getting a new vaccine while pregnant. She has since done research and talked with her midwife, and has changed her mind.

“I now know the benefits of getting vaccinated outweigh the risks of having COVID during pregnancy,” she said.

Lizzie said she and her husband were “astounded” to see Mills’ original vaccine plan.

“I want nothing more than people who are high risk to be able to get the vaccine, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be aged based,” she said. “Maine (was) essentially prioritizing healthy individuals in their 40s over high-risk individuals in their 20s and 30s, many of whom are teachers.”

According to the Maine Department of Education, there are 14,645 teachers in Maine, with 11,994 being classroom teachers. The DOE said teachers have accounted for around 25% of the positive COVID-19 cases in schools this year.

Ron Peck thinks educators should have been in the first group and even wrote to his state representative and senator.

His wife Toshiko Obokata is a special education teacher in Waterville. Sometimes, Peck said, she has to wear head-to-toe protective gear against the virus in case a student is unable to wear a mask.

“My wife is in contact all the time,” he said. “The age group and the types of children she interacts with, it’s impossible to distance. In my opinion, she is exposed as much as any medical professional.”

Peck and Obokata have two young daughters. He is happy that she hasn’t already contracted the virus.

With the number of coronavirus cases declining in comparison to about a month ago, he said the push to be in-person, full-time is frustrating, especially since teachers were not priorities in Mills’ first plan.

“For schools, in terms of efficiency, I think it would efficient to have someone walk into a school and vaccinate staff,” Peck said. “They are already in a building, and it should be no problem at all to vaccinate them as a group.”

TEACHERS WERE LEFT OUT

Though the pandemic, teachers heard from leaders across the country that teachers are essential. So it was shocking to many when Mills rolled out her original vaccination plan that left them out.

“We’ve heard through the pandemic that teachers are essential, and schools across the county are being pushed to open while most of our schools have been open all year,” Lizzie Henyan said. “High-risk teachers and staff across the state have been in-person all school year trying their best to be safe, when there is now a vaccine available to a select few (not including them specifically).”

An English teacher at Gardiner Area High School, Patrick Cowell said it only makes sense to prioritize teachers for their safety and to return to school full-time.

Students have been hybrid in Maine School Administrative District 11 since the start of the school year. Gardiner’s high school is a part of MSAD 11.

Cowell points out that the district has had to go fully remote a couple times, but mostly due to teachers having to quarantine for two weeks, even if they test negative.

“Mass vaccinating teachers would eliminate that road block,” he said. “Operationally, it would make it easier for us to do what we have to do.”

Cowell previously wouldn’t have received the vaccine until May, and some of his youngest collogues would not get the vaccine until July.

Though he is an English teacher, Cowell said he has been a huge believer in the science behind the vaccine and the virus. He said it is sad to see the return back to school become a partisan issue.

Cowell thinks the vaccination of teachers would help “bridge the gap” between science and real fears teachers have had during this time.

“Vaccinating teachers seems like a good middle ground,” he said. “I want them back in school; we all want them back in school. We want life to be normal, but we need that to be done safely.”

As of Friday, he has been unable to secure an appointment for his vaccine, but said some of his co-workers were able to get one this week.

Capen will get hers next week at Walmart.

Lizzie Henyan received news she would be able to get the vaccine as soon as next week.

Her district is working with St. Mary’s in Lewiston. They have not heard about what her husband’s district is doing, but hope they are able to get something closer to home like at the local Walgreens or Hannaford.

She has not heard any specifics yet and doesn’t know if she is able to start making appointments at the said places.

Regardless, she said, “It is such great news.”

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