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Hacienda La Puente board rescinds employee COVID-19 vaccine requirement after debate over past policy
Summary
The Hacienda La Puente Unified board unanimously voted to rescind a 2021'22 resolution that required COVID-19 vaccinations for district employees, after trustees recounted difficult choices made during the pandemic and members pressed for lessons learned on legal and personnel consequences.
The Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to rescind its 2021'22 resolution requiring COVID-19 vaccination of district employees.
Trustees discussed the vote for more than an hour, with several members and staff describing the pandemic-era decision as one of the district's most difficult. Trustee Delator said the mandate had been adopted in a period of intense uncertainty and loss and urged colleagues to remember the human costs: “I personally lost loved ones,” he said, adding that he would still mask if symptomatic. Other trustees, including Trustee Serrano, noted the policy's real consequences for staff who lost their jobs and argued the board should study whether less-restrictive alternatives (such as weekly testing) were viable at the time.
Madame Clerk and other speakers recounted personal illness and long-term impacts of COVID-19 and said the decision in 2021 had been made under fast-changing legal and public-health guidance. Several trustees urged that the district take lessons from the experience and improve how emergency public-health decisions are made and documented.
After discussion, the board approved Resolution 2025-26-15 to rescind the earlier vaccination requirement. The board's vote was recorded as unanimous in favor.
The vote ends the district's standing employee vaccination policy adopted during the pandemic; trustees said the change reflects current law and guidance. Board members emphasized the importance of continuing to support staff and students who remain medically vulnerable and asked administrators to document lessons learned and to provide clearer guidance if similar emergencies arise in the future.
No additional personnel actions were announced at the meeting; trustees said any follow-up related to past employment decisions would be addressed through established human-resources channels.
