Fayette County educators, staff get first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - The Fayette County School District joins a number of other Georgia school systems, in opening a vaccination clinic for its employees. The site opened Thursday, at Fayette County High School.

Teachers, bus drivers, administrators, and other staff came out to receive their first of two Pfizer shots.

The effort is being run by the nurses in the Fayette County School system in cooperation with Piedmont Hospital in Fayette County. They will repeat this in several weeks. They said this is really important.

Fayette County Schools never closed down. They have had a combination of in-class learning and virtual learning. They go a couple of days a week in school and a couple of day days a week online. What they say this will do is take the burden, the weight off the shoulder so that they return to some sense of normalcy, even this year.

"So, when you think about traditional school, we’re still going to be wearing masks but we’re going to be able to see some things open up and help our kids and our community, you know, have school be more traditional in nature," said Dr. Jonathan Patterson, Fayette County Superintendent.

"It’s just a relief to know that we can walk into the school building and feel safe but especially for the kids to make sure we’re not bringing anything to them," Shellie Edwards, Starr’s Mill High School counselor.

They said they will return to a combination of virtual and online learning next year and will phase out virtual learning after next year.

WATCH: FOX 5 Atlanta live news coverage

_____

Sign up for FOX 5 email alerts

Download the FOX 5 Atlanta app for breaking news and weather alerts.