DEARBORN — In partnership with the Wayne County Health Department, the Detroit Medical Center and DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan are vaccinating Dearborn schools staff.

The Detroit Medical Center and DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan are beginning to vaccinate more than 1,000 teachers and staff from Dearborn Public Schools.

The DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan is supporting the health of children in Metro Detroit by vaccinating teachers and staff to ensure children will be provided with a safe learning environment when they return to school.

COVID is not gone. We need the community to continue to be vigilant about wearing masks and doing their part to control the spread of the virus so we can keep our students in school — Superintendent Dr. Glenn Maleyko

The teachers and staff will be getting the Moderna vaccine and will return 28 days later to get their second dose.

Superintendent Glenn Maleyko has his appointment scheduled for Feb. 12.

“We have been working very hard on this to get our staff vaccinated,” he said. “When we found out Wayne County had a shortage we were working with the legislature and other community school districts to help put pressure and get Wayne County the doses of the vaccine that we need.”

In a timespan of just two days, Maleyko said approximately 1,800 members of the Dearborn Public School staff will have their first dose of the vaccine.

“I couldn’t be happier with how it’s going so far,” Maleyko said. “I’ve been hearing positive feedback so far that everything is going smoothly at the vaccine sites. There are some staff members that decided to opt out of receiving the vaccine and we did cancel classes with teachers in front of students to allow for them to receive their vaccine.”

While Maleyko has been eager to get students back in school, his goals are finally starting to come to fruition.

“We know many people are still concerned and many parents and we understand that,” he said. “We have been working on this for a very long time and I have been wanting students back in school for months. I am very excited and hopeful.”

In-person learning labs for special education students who are a part of the Act 18 program will begin on Feb. 16 and learning labs for other students will start later in the week. 

The district is planning to have most staff reporting to their buildings on Feb. 16 as well.

With the district’s blended learning plan, students will be in school two days a week, either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday, and will work from home the other days with Wednesdays being live online classes for all students.

The plan is for the first group of students from grades kindergarten, first, second, sixth and ninth to return for blended learning on March 1.

Preschool, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and 10th grades return on March 8 and the remainder of students in grades eighth, 11th and 12th return on March 15.

“We have been preparing for months to reopen schools and are so glad we are finally able to get students back into our classrooms,” Maleyko said. “Getting vaccinations for our staff is also wonderful news to help ensure their safety as we move toward returning all our students to face-to-face learning. We know that in-person learning is the best environment for most students. However, COVID is not gone. We need the community to continue to be vigilant about wearing masks and doing their part to control the spread of the virus so we can keep our students in school.”

Upon returning to school, the use of face masks, social distancing, hand washing, cleaning protocols and other safety measures will continue to be followed.

Parents are asked to contact their child’s school if they have specific questions about health and safety procedures being followed in the building.