Ninety-four percent of Edmonton Public Schools staff have declared complete vaccination against COVID-19

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Ninety-four percent of Edmonton Public Schools staff have stated that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

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At Tuesday’s board meeting, Human Resources Director Angela Anderson said that of 12,665 staff members, 11,900 have attested to receiving both doses of the vaccine.

As for the 765 employees who have yet to file their statements, board chair Trisha Estabrooks said it is unclear if they are not vaccinated.

“We need to unravel that a bit more,” he told reporters at a news conference after the board meeting. “Is it vaccinated by vaccinations? Haven’t they declared yet? Are they part-time workers who haven’t checked their email yet? We are a large school division. There is still a lot of work to do. I’m confident that we can navigate that in the future. “

Estabrooks said it was too early to say how staff who resist declaring or getting vaccinated could affect learning, pointing to the “consequences” outlined in the vaccine mandate announced in October.

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Staff had to declare their vaccination status in mid-October or provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test every 72 hours in the future. The division is paying the bill for the cost of testing until December 17, after which unvaccinated staff will have to pay for it themselves.

Personnel who refuse to be tested before work may be placed on leave without pay or possibly fired. Estabrooks did not say whether the board has taken any of these actions.

Six members of the public who had the opportunity to speak to the board via video link voiced their opposition to Edmonton’s public vaccination mandate for staff at Tuesday’s meeting.

Among those speakers was Carla Smiley, a former Edmonton Catholic Schools trustee who resigned from her position on October 27.

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“This invasion of personal medical privacy and the pressure to get the vaccine is too much,” Smiley said, adding that schools risk losing many trained educators due to the mandate.

Estabrooks then commented on Smiley’s comments, saying that district staff “see value” in the mandate.

“We are not losing staff as a result of a major vaccine policy put forward by our superintendent,” he said.

The board has not ordered vaccinations for children.

Last week, Health Canada said its review of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 would be completed in “weeks, not months.”

Nancy Petersen, the district’s managing director of strategic support, said those children would receive their vaccinations at regular health clinics, not at school clinics as 12-year-olds and older did until the fall.

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Also on Tuesday , Kathy Muhlethaler, assistant superintendent of learning services and operations, told the board Since AHS took over the contact tracing process in schools on October 18, the workload for school personnel has decreased and absenteeism rates are not as high as before.

AHS will continue to notify parents when a positive case of COVID-19 is discovered in their children’s schools, Muhlethaler said.

Meanwhile, parents whose students prefer online classes to face-to-face classes will have the option to extend remote learning into the second half of the year through the Argyll Center .

More information will be provided to parents at the end of November, and registration will begin in December.

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