The Kootenay Columbia school district says it won’t adopt a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for its staff, according to a news release issued Tuesday.
“We’ve been looking at it since October and felt it was important to update [the public] where we were in our process as we’ve been doing all along,” chair Catherine Zaitsoff says. “We just felt with current information it wasn’t an appropriate time for us to implement this.”
However, she added that they will “continuously review the data.”
“We’ve learned over the last two years that we can’t count on anything when it comes to COVID, so we’re just going to look at case numbers and the municipal and provincial information and revisit the topic as necessary. It’s part of our safety plan, so it’s an ongoing discussion at all our safety meetings.”
An employee survey the district conducted found 95 per cent of those who were responded were double vaccinated. However, only slightly more than half of staff responded. Zaitsoff said at the time that there was no way of knowing the status of those who did not reply.
Zaitsoff says in addition to the survey, they have relied on information from their staff and medical health officers in making their decision, as well as evaluating attendance data as directed by the Ministry of Education and public health.
“A lot of communications and analysis went into the decision,” she says.
Zaitsoff says that while they won’t make it mandatory, they still encourage everyone to get vaccinated.
Kootenay Columbia Teachers Union president Andy Davidoff says it’s hard for him to comment on the decision, as the discussion took place behind closed doors.
“The decision, like the process, was a complete mystery to us,” he says. “We were not involved in any of it.”
Davidoff adds that they were aware talks were taking place and knew some of the factors the board was considering, but “all conversations, all data analysis was done in camera. The board did not have an open process. We learned about it when you learned about it.”
Davidoff says the decision will likely come as a relief to staff who aren’t vaccinated and were wondering about their future employment.
However, the BC Teachers’ Federation officially supports vaccination of its members and is not opposed to mandates so long as privacy rights and medical exemptions are respected.
The neighbouring Kootenay Lake school district has given its staff until April 11 to provide proof of vaccination. Those who decline to do so will have to undergo frequent testing or take unpaid leave.