BELCOURT – Teachers and school staff on the Turtle Mountain Reservation and neighboring districts have been receiving their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The school start was delayed in Rolla Wednesday to allow for busing staff to Quentin N. Burdick Memorial Healthcare Facility in Belcourt for vaccinations. The Indian Health Service has been providing the vaccinations.

“They are very excited,” Rolla Superintendent Brad Nash said of his staff. “When we got this call from IHS, we were more than happy to bring our staff over.”

The school sent 46 teachers and support staff to be vaccinated, which is the majority of employees, Nash said. Some employees who fell into age- and health-related priority groups previously had been vaccinated through the public health office. Only a few chose not to be vaccinated.

IHS has been offering vaccinations to employees of the Turtle Mountain Community Schools in Belcourt, Ojibwa Indian School, Dunseith Day Elementary and Dunseith High School, St. Ann’s Catholic School and schools in St. John, Rolla and Rolette.

About 40% of students in the Rolla school are Native American, Nash said. Some staff members also are Native Americans.

Nash said the school has been fortunate to have had limited impact from the COVID-19 pandemic this school year.

“We feel very strongly we have great policies and procedures in place for our kids,” he said. School has been conducted in the classroom except for 13 days before Thanksgiving, when high COVID-19 numbers in Rolette County prompted a move to online learning.

St. John Public School has had 60 of its 80 employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations – most through IHS and a handful previously through public health. IHS provided vaccinations Feb. 3.

“It was extremely organized,” St. John Superintendent Paul Frydenlund said. “It went extremely smooth.”

He said St. John had started its school year in hybrid mode. A surge of cases within the school in October forced a transition to a distance learning model for November and December. The high school is back in the hybrid model, while last week, the school started pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students in in-person learning. This week, students temporarily engaged in distance learning, not because of COVID-19 but because of lack of water due to a water tower issue in St. John.

Dunseith Public School participated in IHS vaccinations Feb. 2. Superintendent David Sjol said the vast majority of staff took part and were excited to get the chance to do so.

“They thought that was a good deal because I know there’s a lot of schools that haven’t been able to do it yet,” he said.

School employees participating in the IHS program will be getting their second vaccine doses in late February.

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Vaccinations continue across ND

North Dakota counties and health districts are continuing to receive and distribute vaccine, although often at differing paces in working through the state’s currently identified priority groups. Most counties have vaccinated people aged 75 and older and have opened vaccinations for those ages 65 and older, either with or without high-risk medical conditions. Younger individuals with high-risk conditions, child-care workers and school personnel are next on the list.

“We’re encouraging healthcare providers to give the COVID-19 vaccines the same week that they received them, and to do so according to the different phases and priority groups and to go in order,” Howell said.

The health department guarantees second doses and allocates first doses based on the population of the tier that a county is in the process of vaccinating. For instance, earlier this week, the department was allocating doses based on county populations of individuals aged 65 and older. Within the counties, allocated doses are divided among the vaccinating agencies.

The public’s ease of access to the vaccine can influence how rapidly allotted vaccine within a particular county is depleted, Howell said. Also, people sometimes travel to other counties and are vaccinated from that county’s vaccine allotment, such as people living outside of Ward County who obtain vaccination through their Minot health-care providers.

“Uptake of the vaccine is going to vary by county. We’re kind of monitoring to make sure we’re keeping people somewhat at the same priority group,” Howell said. “But if we see one county or area falling behind, then we’ll try and allocate more doses towards them to get them caught up.”

– Jill Schramm