Principal Heather Gauthier welcomes students on the first day of school on Sept. 1 at Lincoln Elementary School in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

Most central Maine schools are above the statewide average of teachers and school staff members fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to new state data.

The statewide average of teachers and school staff members who are fully vaccinated is 79.7%.

The data collected last month by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention suggested Augusta and Waterville area schools were behind the curve. But since the first collection, most school districts rates have risen, some significantly. Having a second month of data adds comparison for the previous month, from more staff reporting their status, more vaccinations, or through an error in the previous month’s reporting.

Some local districts previously reported errors in reporting the results, causing for inaccuracies in data and cited missing deadlines or not having all of the staff responses back.

Release of the new school data comes as officials are preparing for the expected approval by federal officials for COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11. Vaccines for students in that age could be distributed as soon as November.

Fully-vaccinated means a teacher or staff member has to have two doses of the Pfizer or Modena vaccination, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. At this time, teachers are not required to be vaccinated, but required to share their status. Districts survey the staff anonymously on a monthly basis to collect the data.

Schools with vaccinated students or teachers do not have to quarantine if they come in contact with a positive COVID-19 case, per the Standard Operating Procedure guidelines from the Department of Education. However, since students under the age of 11 cannot choose to be vaccinated at this time, students in the elementary schools are having to quarantine as state COVID-19 cases have risen in the past couple of weeks.

On Wednesday, the first day the September data were released, the superintendent of Oakland-based Regional School Unit 18 said there was an error in his district’s reporting. Carl Gartley said the state departments asked him to resubmit in October. The data on the DHHS and CDC tracker shows up, as of Thursday morning, as “did not submit.”

Gartley provided the vaccination rate data, and it showed that more staff members have not only gotten vaccinated, but more have reported their results in comparison to last month. He also said last month, they did not have the statistics from substitute teachers or ed technicians since the first official day of school was Sept. 1, which could account for the different numbers in teachers reporting their status, too.

In RSU 18’s Atwood Elementary School in Oakland, the total number of staff is 49 and 32 were vaccinated in the month of August. In September, the number of staff members rose to 54 and 38 of them reported they were vaccinated. The number of those vaccinated in the district rose for each school in RSU 18.

In the Augusta-area, the district with the lowest vaccination rate for last month and this month is Hallowell-based Regional School Unit 2. The district has seen an increase of staff vaccination rates in every school within the district, per the data, but the overall average and district rate rose from 46.2% to 52%.

Richmond Middle School, part of RSU 2, had a vaccination rate of 43.8% in August, and now in September, the rate is 87.5%. Even Hall-Dale Elementary School, which had the highest vaccination rate in the district in August at 90%, rose to 91.7%.

RSU 2 Superintendent Tonya Arnold said Wednesday the district is scheduled to hold vaccination clinics in November for students, anticipating the FDA-approval for the vaccination in children between the ages of 5 and 11. She contributed the staff vaccination rate being low in some buildings as “not hearing back” from some employees on their status.

Winthrop Public Schools Superintendent James Hodgkin said in the district’s school committee meeting Wednesday the high school teacher vaccination rate jumped from 74.2% last week to 90.3% this week.

“Looking at the most recent data, all our schools are over 90% vaccinated,” he said. “That’s really good.”

RSU 38 has reported multiple COVID-19 cases in the past couple of weeks, but has maintained a high vaccination rate among staff members. Maranacook High School has the highest percentage of vaccinated staff, at 94.1% and Readfield Elementary School has the lowest at 82.9%, though still above the state average.

Some schools in the Waterville area behind the statewide average, but getting closer to the goal. As some superintendents in the area have pointed out, their numbers are inconsistent due to errors in submission but will be fixed in the coming days.

The Waterville Public Schools did not submit its teacher vaccination data last month and showed up this month with numbers well below the state average. Albert S. Hall School has a vaccination rate of 53.8% and George J. Mitchell School had the highest district rate at 67.7%. The district’s two other schools fall in a range between the two.

Pittsfield-based Maine School Administrative District 53 saw a dip in its data and went from an August staff vaccination average of 85.4% to 84.1%. Superintendent Sharon Littlefield said the dip was due to an “error the first time around” with reporting the data. She said someone was coded as vaccinated when they weren’t.

“The process has also been improved in that once the data is entered, an email is sent so it can be confirmed before posting,” Littlefield added.