BURLINGTON — The nation’s top education official visited two Burlington schools on Friday, stopping by classrooms and touring a Covid-19 vaccine clinic for children.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona also met with Dan French, Vermont’s education secretary, and parents and officials from the Burlington School District.
Cardona said he was impressed with the district’s offerings for after-school and summer programs, which serve more than 1,500 students. He also commended the vaccine clinics the district held this month at its elementary schools for children ages 5 to 11.
Half of Vermonters ages 5 to 11 already have been registered for a Covid-19 shot, he said. The state opened up appointments for children on Nov. 3.
“This is a model of what it should look like across the country,” he said at Champlain Elementary School on Pine Street after touring a vaccine clinic there.
The secretary gave chocolate coins from the U.S. Department of Education to several children who had just been vaccinated. He said it was great to see volunteers and first responders from around the community at the clinic, helping kids get their shots.
“We’re thankful that, as schools reopen, we reclaim that role of being the hub of communities where our students feel safe, our parents feel safe,” Cardona said.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was scheduled to join Cardona at the schools on Friday, but got held up in Washington, D.C., said Kathryn Becker Van Haste, the senator’s state director. Van Haste said Sanders was delayed by the Senate’s debate over the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
Cardona also visited a second-grade classroom at Champlain Elementary where students had made birthday cards for President Joe Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday.
Earlier Friday morning, he visited a pre-kindergarten classroom at Sustainability Academy on North Street and spoke with several teachers and students there.
Together with French and Van Haste, Cardona also talked to a parent at the school about the importance of parents and teachers working together to support students.
“When we do have relationships,” he said, “that schools are listening to parents and parents are viewed as really important partners — students succeed.”
