(New Orleans – February 23, 2021) – NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) and LCMC Children’s Hospital of New Orleans (CHNOLA) celebrated another milestone today in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as public school teachers and support staff who work on-site at K-12 schools received their first round of vaccines.

“We are excited our educators have been prioritized to receive the vaccine because of their important work with our school children,” said NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. said “We hope every teacher and support staff who works on-site at one of our schools will take advantage of their place in the current vaccine roll-out. The vaccine is vitally important to help protect them, their students, and their families.”

“As we continue to roll-out the vaccine to our front line workers, such as teachers and staff, and vulnerable populations, it’s a hopeful sign that this is truly the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” said Dr. Leron Finger, Chief Quality Officer at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. “We are proud of the partnerships we’ve built to help protect our school communities as we get through this, together.”

During the first week of eligibility, roughly 1,000 school teachers and support staff are expected to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Children’s Hospital, Uptown. NOLA-PS and CHNOLA are in the process of providing access to educators and staff who expressed interest in receiving the vaccine.

NOLA-PS used a randomized order of school sites to schedule teachers and staff for vaccinations. Teachers and staff interested in the vaccine are encouraged to contact NOLA-PS and respond to our K-12 School Staff Survey to start the registration process.

NOLA-PS will continue to leverage relationships with our healthcare partners, including the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), CHNOLA, New Orleans East Hospital, and others, to help our schools schedule vaccinations for the newly eligible employees in the District. We will also work closely with our school leaders to keep them fully apprised of the vaccine options available as these efforts continue.

The vaccination process will take time to execute and be limited by local health care partners’ vaccine supply and capacity. We encourage our NOLA-PS families to contact their own health care providers as another method to gain access to vaccinations.

Meanwhile, NOLA-PS will continue to rely on the safety guidelines in its Roadmap to Reopening that have mitigated spread within our schools and allowed us to be one of the few school districts in the country to maintain in-person learning for much of this school year.

For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit www.lcmchealth.org/coronavirus/.
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ABOUT NOLA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish, which includes the district’s elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board and the district’s administration led by NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis Jr. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 77 public schools.