Hamilton public board not yet ready to mandate vaccines
Hamilton's public school board says it will wait to see how many of its employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before considering whether to follow the Toronto public board's move to require immunization.
Board chair Dawn Danko said there is only a minor difference" between the Toronto District School Board's (TDSB) approach and the province's policy requiring employees to disclose if they are fully vaccinated by Sept. 7, the day before school starts.
Those not immunized will have to either provide a documented medical reason or take an education program on vaccines. Anyone unable or refusing to get fully vaccinated will have to follow a rapid-testing protocol to show they don't have COVID-19.
All school boards are expected to publicly disclose their overall immunization rates by Sept. 15.
Danko said her board's union partners support requiring full immunization, but doing so now isn't necessary, because it won't change the trajectory of the number of vaccinated staff we'll have in our schools" by Sept. 7.
Once we have results, we can take additional steps, and that could look very much like the TDSB," Danko said at an Aug. 26 media event at Memorial City Elementary School to highlight COVID safety measures.
One thing that we are uncertain about, if you mandate vaccines or an exemption, and having to go through a process for an exemption, what does that mean for staff who do not complete that process?" she said.
Are they able to come to work? Presumably, no. But is that something we believe we can do? Certainly, there's been some debate about if something's not part of their work contract, there may be some challenges to that."
TDSB trustees voted unanimously on Aug. 25 to require all staff, trustees and visitors to be fully vaccinated unless legally entitled to an accommodation for human-rights reasons, a media release on the board's website states.
They also voted to write Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Toronto's and Ontario's top medical officers of health to support adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of compulsory vaccinations for all eligible students.
The data is clear - being fully vaccinated significantly reduces the risks of the most serious outcomes of COVID-19," chair Alexander Brown said in the release.
This is an important step to ensure we are making our schools and workplaces as safe as possible for staff and students - particularly younger students who are not eligible to receive the vaccine."
Mohawk College and McMaster University are requiring all students and staff to be fully vaccinated unless they have medical or human-rights reasons to not do so. Redeemer College is only strongly encouraging" vaccination.
Hamilton city council voted to do likewise on Aug. 26 for all staff, councillors, members of council-appointed committees and students.
A city media release states that unvaccinated employees must have their first dose by Sept. 30 and be fully immunized by Nov. 1. Until then, they will have to submit to regular testing to enter a city facility.
Those not complying are subject to possible discipline, but at this time, staff would not be terminated," the release states.