Teachers resign because of employee vaccine mandate in the Santee reservation

NIOBRARA, Neb. — A half-dozen teachers have resigned from the Santee Community School District after a vaccine mandate for all teachers ahead of the next school year.

The mandate originates from the Santee Sioux Tribal Council, they require all employees within the reservation boundaries to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 1st.

Superintendent of the Santee Community Schools, Todd Chessmore told us "there was the vaccination mandate and we had some staff members resign because of it. We just accepted their resignation."

At a recent school board meeting, the resignation of many teachers was accepted. Only six of those teacher resignations were due to the vaccine mandate. Chessmore stated, " We are very comfortable with where we are at filling those positions and are confident that we are going to be able to meet the needs of the school district."

The district has also accepted the resignations of several other teachers and staff that were unrelated to the vaccine requirement.

Chessmore continued to state that most of the teachers who resigned have found placements outside of the reservation.

"We have a very caring and compassionate tribal council that is doing what they feel is right for the community. We support them and their other decisions, and we are going to have a great year next year. I am very optimistic. "

The school district is in the process of hiring for positions left vacant this year.

For school board meeting minutes where this was discussed visit this link.