Looking to expand school reopenings, school district employees will be prioritized at BCHD’s AdventurePlex in Manhattan Beach
Media Contacts:
Dan Smith, Communications Manager, BCHD
(310) 374-3426, ext. 156 dan.smith@bchd.org
George Gabriel, Senior Management Analyst, City of Manhattan Beach
(310) 802-5054 ggabriel@citymb.info
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (February 26, 2021) – Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) is opening a new vaccination site for educators next week at AdventurePlex (1701 Marine Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA), to be operated in partnership with the Cities of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach and 11 public school districts. BCHD has also been working with 4th District Supervisor Janice Hahn and the L.A. County Department of Public Health (Public Health) to get the site up and running.
This vaccine site is not open to the public. Currently, it is a closed Point of Distribution (POD) specifically operating to vaccinate employees of area School Districts and select charter schools.
On Monday, Public Health will expand eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to Phase 1B, Tier 1, which includes education and childcare workers. The establishment of the BCHD vaccination site is in response to the new eligibility and the Statecalling for schools to reopen as quickly and safely as possible. Vaccines have been allocated by the Public Health and will be provided to the South Bay Consortium for School Vaccines, which includes the following school districts:
- Centinela Valley Unified High School District
- El Segundo Unified School District
- Hawthorne Unified School District
- Hermosa Beach City School District
- Inglewood Unified School District
- Lawndale Unified School District
- Lennox Unified School District
- Manhattan Beach Unified School District
- Palos Verdes Unified School District
- Redondo Beach Unified School District
- Wiseburn Unified School District
According to Public Health, vaccine doses will be set aside for early childcare education, private and independent schools through restricted educator appointments at county-run vaccination sites.
“We have been able to build a great partnership with Beach Cities Health District and they are going to do the important work vaccinating our South Bay teachers and school staff,” said County Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This is good news for teachers, parents, and our kids. If it was ever up for debate before, this pandemic has made it clear that our teachers are essential, and we need them back in classrooms.”
“We are pleased to partner with the L.A. County Department of Public Health, Supervisor Janice Hahn, the City of Manhattan Beach and our school districts on our vaccination site that will allow local educators to get the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Tom Bakaly, CEO of Beach Cities Health District. “Our team, including many volunteers, will use the lessons learned from administering more than 135,000 COVID-19 tests at our Redondo Beach site to make this vaccine site efficient and effective. We are ready to vaccinate our educators as promptly as possible. Vaccines are an additional tool in the fight against COVID-19 in addition to physical distancing, wearing face masks correctly, washing our hands and avoiding crowds. We’re going to need to use all available tools to get through this pandemic together.”
“COVID-19 has had an immense impact on all our lives. Thankfully, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the continued rollout of vaccines,” said Suzanne Hadley, Mayor of Manhattan Beach. “The City happily partners with County of Los Angeles Supervisor Janice Hahn and the Beach Cities Health District to provide a local vaccine site, within our own city limits. Our City recognizes that the supply of vaccines continues to be limited. Nonetheless, we are dedicated to ensuring that whatever
vaccine is available, our City personnel will assist with administering it to those who are eligible.”
To address persistent inequities and COVID-19's disproportionate impact, Public Health and the Los Angeles County Office of Education have identified a process to distribute a proportional number of those doses to each school district weekly. All school districts in the county will receive weekly allocations of vaccines with quantities determined by consideration of equity, weighing COVID-19 community impact and staff risk exposure due to in-person instruction and school-based services.
Vaccine allocations were made to each school district to be proportional to the size of the district and weighted for COVID-19 impact, in-person education and percentage of students eligible for free and reduced meal plans.
A percentage of each school district's weekly vaccine allocation will be distributed to charter schools, determined by overall student enrollment in charter programs (i.e., if 10 percent of students in a district attend a charter school, 10 percent of weekly doses would be allocated).
Each school district will determine, at their discretion, the weekly staff vaccine priority list and will provide this list to BCHD. School districts are advised to prioritize staff with the highest risk of exposure due to in-person services currently offered at school sites. Based on the vaccine dose allocations provided by Public Health, local school districts will prioritize staff at the highest risk of COVID-19, including those who are on campus and working in close proximity to others, such as food services, custodial staff and those providing in-person education.
A designated vaccine liaison at each school district will coordinate scheduling and registration with BCHD, and school nurses are also being enlisted to support the vaccination efforts. In addition to BCHD’s staff and volunteers, student nurses from Mount St. Mary’s University and the fire departments in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and El Segundo are supporting BCHD’s vaccine site with vaccinators.
AdventurePlex, located at 1701 Marine Avenue in Manhattan Beach, is owned and operated by BCHD. The family fitness facility has been temporarily closed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last March. The facility is now offering virtual content for families to enjoy safely at home. Employees from BCHD’s AdventurePlex have been re-assigned to BCHD’s COVID-19 operations.
Throughout the pandemic, BCHD has provided a number of services to Beach Cities residents, including healthy meal deliveries, running essential errands for older adults and other at-risk populations, and providing information via its Assistance, Information & Referral line. For information on COVID-19 testing, health-related referrals or assistance, visit bchd.org/coronavirus or call 310-374-3426, ext. 256.
Currently, L.A. County healthcare workers in Phase 1A and residents 65 and older have been able to make vaccine appointments. Starting Monday, those who work in education and childcare, food and agriculture, and first responders and law enforcement all included in Phase 1B, Tier 1 are eligible and can schedule a free COVID-19 vaccine appointment by visiting http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/ncorona2019/vaccine/hcwsignup/.
