Rite Aid has distributed one hundred Johnson and Johnson vaccines across the Malvern faculty. 88 percent of the faculty have been vaccinated which means herd immunity has been achieved. The teachers now feel safer and more inclined to teach in person. 

Mrs. Neha Morrison,  the head of HR at Malvern Prep has played a major role in the vaccination process for Malvern. 

“The Caritas Committee spent a lot of time over the summer preparing new school policies and protocols, to keep everyone as safe as possible without a vaccine. I felt really good about where Malvern was going to be when we open up,” Morrison said.

Having these protocols in place has really helped Malvern limit the amount of COVID cases among the community, without a vaccine at the start of the year. 

“Over the summer we were doing constant surveys, to get teachers opinions on how they feel about teaching in person,anxiety levels, and what we can do to make them feel more comfortable at school,” Morrison said.

The summer was a big planning stage for the Caritas Committee, they wanted to make Malvern the safest it could be. 

“We were giving our Malvern community a lot of information on where to go for a vaccine, what group they fell under based on medical needs. We had a group of faculty on a list for people who wanted vaccines. In return we would tell them where vaccine sights were and where they could go,” Morrison said.

Communicating is key to the success of keeping Malvern safe and giving constant updates to the faculty about the process of distributing the vaccine made the process smoother for everyone. 

“Our school nurse Liz Malone was doing research with other school in the area, to find out what they were doing, and with that information,Malvern was able to get Rite Aid on sight and they offered us 100 vaccines,” Morrison said.

Mrs. Malone did a great job on gathering information from teachers on whether they wanted a vaccine or not. This helped to make the vaccine distribution smoother. 

“Anyone who was a Malvern Prep community member was able to sign up on a sheet to receive a vaccine. They were told to go to Saint Rita’s for their vaccine. They would receive it and wait 15 minutes in a room to make sure they had no immediate side effects,” Morrison said.

Receiving the vaccine was very simple and all the vaccines were administered in only a couple of hours. 

The strength coach Mr. Eric Miller, was one of the one hundred people to receive a vaccine. 

“Without the vaccine, I felt safe at school. Students were adhering to the protocols and we never had huge spikes on COVID cases. The plan put in place for Malvern is working great,” Miller said.

Even with no vaccine Miller had confidence in Malvern and knew that his safety and the safety of others was put first. 

“Having the vaccine put my family at ease. So when Malvern offered the vaccine, I didn’t think twice about it and got vaccinated,”Miller said.

For Miller his family was first and putting them at ease made him feel better. 

Mr. Thomas McGuire, was worried about returning to teach in person at Malvern.  

“I was very apprehensive about teaching with no vaccine, my wife and I are in our mid-60s, and we’re both in that age bracket where we are vulnerable to COVID, McGuire said.” 

Teaching without a vaccine was scary for McGuire was unaware of how Malvern was going to handle it to start and needed a chance to see Malvern precautions before making his decision and teaching virtually or not. 

“Once we got in the school and I saw the arrangements and everything it took a load off my mind and I had no problem teaching in person,” McGuire said.

Malvern had done a great job to ensure safety among teachers and making their environment safe for in person teaching. 

“I wanted to get the vaccine as soon as possible. Just so I could feel a little safer. Now that said, I can still get COVID but my chances are greatly reduced. Having the vaccine makes me feel safer at school and at home,” McGuire said.

The vaccine makes McGuire feels safer about being at school and not risking bringing the virus to his wife. 

Mr. Leroi Leviston has received the vaccine and feals more confident about teaching. 

“I feel more confident about being at school, even though I’m still mindful of not being in large groups or doing anything out of the ordinary, Lev said.”

Lev spends a lot of time with students while at school, so having the vaccine makes him feel safer being around, possibly, unvaccinated students. 

“I have this foresight that the vaccine is going to be needed to travel and go to sporting events. Those are some things I would love to do. So that played a role in my decision making process. Also I want to see my mom and I don’t want to put her at risk. So I needed to get the vaccine,”he said. 

Having the vaccine will help to open up Levinston life and the world. The vaccine will play a key role and for everything returning to normal. 

The one hundred  vaccines distributed from Rite Aid at Malvern have helped to create a safer environment for the Malvern community. The Malvern community is hopeful that our 2021-2022 school year will be a normal year and we will all be vaccinated.