Hamilton public school board to give COVID-19 holdouts final warning
More than 800 of the Hamilton public school board's 7,172 permanent and occasional employees are either unvaccinated against COVID-19 or have failed to disclose their status as required by the province.
The latest figures presented to trustees show 6,297 employees, or 87.8 per cent, were fully vaccinated as of 9 a.m. on Sept. 29.
But 515 staff attested to being unvaccinated, while 301 hadn't revealed their status as required by the board's immunization disclosure policy. Fifty-nine provided a documented medical reason for not being vaccinated.
The figures also include the board's 11 trustees but provide no details on their status.
Human resources superintendent Jamie Nunn said the 301 people who haven't disclosed their status are predominantly occasional employees and have been sent followup letters to remind them of the policy, mandated by the province.
Possible explanations for not disclosing their status may include that they are working at other school boards or looking for work elsewhere, he told trustees at their Oct. 4 board meeting.
If an occasional staff member is working for multiple school boards, they are required to disclose their status to all school boards (with) whom they are employed," Nunn said.
Education director Manny Figueiredo said staff who refuse to get vaccinated must submit the results of two rapid antigen tests per week as a condition of employment.
He said the human resources will contact those failing to comply one last time to see if there are technical difficulties" in meeting requirements.
If it's a choice to not participate, then employees will be sent home without pay until they comply with this condition of employment set out by the province," Figueiredo said.
Trustees voted to write a letter asking the Ministry of Education to provide funding to police the vaccination disclosure policy and to provide free rapid antigen tests for students and staff who are worried they have COVID-19 but are asymptomatic.
The letter will also ask the ministry to provide the remaining half of a $5.3-million COVID-19 grant promised for the second semester, money used to hire extra caretakers and support staff.
Only west Mountain trustee Becky Buck opposed the letter, questioning the cost and efficacy of the free rapid antigen tests.
She also previously opposed the vaccine disclosure policy.
I do have concerns about the false positive that test kits could have," Buck said. "They're not hugely reliable and still would require folks to go and get the test done at somewhere like the (St. Joseph's) west campus in order to prove whether or not they have COVID-19."
The release of vaccination rates came as the board implemented its traditional fall elementary classroom reorganization to adjust staffing to actual, rather than projected, enrolment.
Program superintendent Bill Torrens said the reorganization saw 770 students who initially chose to return to school switch to remote learning, adding 18 classrooms, for a total of 78.
Another 345 students who chose remote learning in September meanwhile opted to return to in-person classes.
Overall, 2,160 elementary students, or about six per cent, are learning remotely, down from about 9,000 last school year.