Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

Central Okanagan trustees will decide on a vaccine mandate for their teachers and staff against COVID-19 later this month.

During last night’s regular school district board meeting, the decision to require staff to have COVID-19 vaccinations was tabled until the next board meeting, Jan. 26, said chair Moyra Baxter.

"Every question or comment last night was about this," she said.

The school district is requiring teachers and staff to disclose their vaccination status. They have until tomorrow, Jan. 14, to provide that information, Baxter said. If they don't, the school board will assume they're unvaccinated.

Baxter said she doesn’t yet know the level of response.

The Central Okanagan Teachers Association, the union representing teachers, has filed a grievance on the matter.

READ MORE: What you can do if teachers are spreading anti-vaccination messages in B.C. schools

Some senior and municipal governments have made vaccination a condition of employment, as have some employers. Those who refuse are suspended without pay then terminated.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has made it mandatory for health-care workers to be vaccinated but left it to school boards to make their own decisions, arguing that schools have low transmission rates.

“It was frustrating that this was left up to individual boards to decide and now Delta school board has decided to go ahead and I don’t know whether others will start but quite a few school boards jumped in and said 'no we’re not doing it' but we’ve been sort of (waiting and seeing) and trying to gather information,” Baxter said.

READ MORE: Central Okanagan schools ahead of provincial curve on staff vaccination status

The Central Okanagan school district, as did others in the Thompson and Okanagan regions, surveyed their staff in the fall but that was voluntary and the response rate often was low.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berry or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.

News from © iNFOnews, 2022