McKee’s Vaccination Plan, Too Many Bosses and NEA’s Walsh Says Raimondo’s in Conflict with Biden
Saturday, February 20, 2021
On Friday, during Rhode Island Lt. Governor Dan McKee's meeting of his Transition COVID-19 Advisors, National Education Association of Rhode Island Executive Director Bob Walsh was highly critical of Governor Gina Raimondo and Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott’s failure to prioritize the vaccination of teachers in order to fully reopen schools.
Walsh, a member of McKee’s transition team, said, “The Governor is in conflict with President Biden, the CDC, everyone.”
Mike McGee, now the CEO of Chiefs for Change, and formerly the head of Rhode Island's Mayoral Academies, agreed with Walsh on the critical need to prioritize teachers.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMcGee and Walsh have over the years have been rivals over the expansion of charter schools in Rhode Island, but were united on the need to get teachers vaccinated and resuming in school learning as quickly as possible.
McGee cited a new planning document for school districts to guide in-school teaching — READ HERE
McKee Plan
At the introduction of the meeting, McKee outlined that under his plan there will be more local vaccination stations managed by cities and towns. He said these would augment the two statewide locations in Cranston and in Providence.
McKee said the response to the virus and the rollout of a successful vaccination is Rhode Island's “9/11 moment.”
According to the CDC, Rhode Island has received 246,175 doses and has administered 181,725.
Too Many Bosses?
McKee said his long-time staffer and now chief of staff Tony Silva will take on the role as overseeing the vaccination program. This runs into conflict with Raimondo’s appointment in the past two weeks of Tom McCarthy to a $146,655 a year job as the COVID-19 top administrator.
The Raimondo administration created the position after she was named by President Joe Biden to serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
McCarthy previously worked at the Rhode Island Department of Education and served as chief of staff to Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green. McKee's transition team told GoLocal this week that McKee was not aware of the McCarthy appointment.
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