Important Vaccine Updates

You likely saw last Friday that Governor Polis shared his decision to move educators to the top of the vaccine prioritization list beginning February 8th.  Over the weekend, we learned from Denver Public Schools that they have secured more than 20,000 doses through a partnership with Children’s Hospital.  This will ensure that all DPS educators, including those in charter schools, will have access to the vaccine in the next 3 weeks.  Vaccinations will begin on February 8th.  We are thrilled!

For our AST team members, we were also notified that APS is actively working to secure vaccinations and we expect to hear more details on how to set up appointments very soon.  We will be in touch with you the minute we know more.  

First Step:  Complete the DPS Survey

Yesterday, we were informed by DPS that all staff with a DSST email account who wish to be vaccinated will need to complete a DPS survey indicating your interest in getting an appointment.  That survey, unfortunately, will be sent to your DPS email address.  

To access your DPS email account as a DSST employee please take the following steps:

1. Go to https ://webmail.dpsk12.org/
2. Login with your IC credentials (i.e. First_Last@dpsk12.org).

***If you do not know your IC credentials please reach out to the DPS DoTS Service Desk by calling (720) 423-3888 or request your username/reset password here

The email will come from “Interim Superintendent Dwight Jones” and the subject line will be “COVID-19 Vaccine--Please take this 1 minute survey!”  It is our understanding that the link to the DPS survey will be sent this morning and it will remain open through Wednesday, February 3rd at 12PM.  

After DPS has collected survey responses, we anticipate that they will begin to connect you with available appointments.  It’s likely that you will be notified (again, through your DPS email account) about appointments later this week or early next week.  We really don’t have any details on timing.  And at this point, we are not clear about how DPS is prioritizing those who wish to be vaccinated.  We will certainly keep you updated as we learn more.  

Other Possible Vaccination Options

• We also learned that you can sign up through Kaiser or SCL Health for last minute appointments due to others cancelling or leftover doses. You must live within 15 minutes of one of their facilities.  See the question specific to “Rapid On-Call List.”  If they call you, you must be able to get to the facility within 15 minutes.
• A few of you have asked about vaccination appointments through Safeway.  While there aren’t any appointments currently available, they seem to release appointments in batches.  It’s possible that batches of appointments for educators will become available after February 8th.  It’s worth checking the site regularly--and if you happen to stumble across availability, please share that information with your colleagues!
• In addition to the DPS option, we continue to work with Centura.  If we are able to secure appointments more quickly with Centura, we will let you know.  

We recognize that vaccination appointments are likely to conflict with school hours.  It’s not a problem.  Simply coordinate with your school leadership teams once you have an appointment.

If you have questions about anything we’ve shared--or you learn of another vaccination resource that we can share--please email humanresources@scienceandtech.org.

We remain deeply committed to your health and safety--and will continue to work hard until we know that every single staff member and student are protected from the COVID-19 virus.  I want to express my deep gratitude to our school leaders and our health and safety leads who have worked incredibly hard to ensure a successful return to school tomorrow.