City Aims To Vaccinate Every Educator In Two Weeks

The City of Milwaukee and two major health systems are partnering in an attempt to vaccinate every educator and childcare worker in the city in just two weeks.

The second phase of vaccination began Monday statewide and the first priority group that became eligible includes educators and childcare workers. The city is trying to make sure that every educator who wants a vaccine can get one within the first two weeks of this phase.

All educators and childcare workers that live or work in the City of Milwaukee can be vaccinated through the Milwaukee Health Department.

School districts across the state have already returned to in-person or hybrid classrooms. Milwaukee Public Schools have already begun in-person education for 300 special-needs students, and will begin phasing in the rest of the school district beginning in April.

“Healthy teachers who are back in the classroom are good for children,” Mayor Tom Barrett said at a press conference Wednesday.

Educators and childcare providers can make an appointment for a vaccine by going to the health department’s website. The website has a portal for registering for the vaccine and it will prompt you to indicate if you are an educator.

The city has partnered with the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and Children’s Wisconsin in this undertaking. Both health systems are working to coordinate staff and volunteers for vaccination sites for educators.

The partners are providing staffing to keep vaccination going at the Wisconsin Center seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Next week, the department and the partners will begin running four new community clinics to make it easier to access the vaccine.

Two clinics are specifically for MPS staff. These will be at two high schools: North Division, 1011 W. Center St., and South Division, 1515 W. Lapham Blvd. The North Division clinic will run from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday March 9th and Thursday March 11. South Division will operate the same hours on Wednesday March 10th and Friday March 12th.

Two other community clinics will be open to all educators and healthcare workers living or working in the city. The first is at the Mitchell Street branch of the Milwaukee Public Library, 906 W. Historic Mitchell St., Tuesday March 9th 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The second is at Villard Square library branch, 5190 N. 35th St.,  Wednesday March 10th during the same hours.

Both private health systems are providing hundreds of volunteers to staff and coordinate this undertaking to vaccinate educators before students return to school. Dr. Kristin Busse, MCW COVID-19 program manager, said “We believe these community sites that you announced is just what our community needs, to meet people right where they are with vaccine.”