A small but sizable minority of Yorkville Community United School District 115 staff have tentatively opted out of receiving a vaccination for COVID-19, Superintendent Tim Shimp confirmed at a school board meeting Monday, Jan. 25.

With Kendall County shifting full force into vaccinations for essential workers and the elderly under phase 1b, 30% of Yorkville’s 950 staff members have told the district they will not take the vaccine when their time comes.

“There’s another 70 or 80 staff members who were unsure at the time,” Shimp told the school board Monday night.

So far, 123 district employees have received the vaccine, Shimp said. Another 80 staff members are set for their inoculations on Tuesday, Jan. 26, although the week’s snow storm could delay the shots.

In the meantime, Yorkville High School is gearing up to serve as a mass vaccination site. The Kendall County Health Department has scheduled two “soft runs” for elderly residents to be vaccinated at the site Saturdays, Feb. 6 and March 6, Shimp said.

The high school mass vaccination site won’t be fully up and running until the health department has thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses in their stockpile, county health officials said previously.

Later in his remarks, Shimp hailed Kendall County’s transition into Phase 4 COVID-19 guidelines, adding that district students will soon return to extracurriculars and athletics.

“I’m very appreciative of the board for your support and advocacy, as well as our staff, who have all contributed to that, and our community for doing the right things by distancing and masking,” Shimp said.