The Cowichan Valley School District will not direct its staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The district says that after consultations with the Medical Health Officer and the unions representing employees it was decided that SD79 would not institute a vaccine mandate for its employees.
The district says informal data shows most staff have been vaccinated and a mandate would have little effect on reducing any community or school-based spread of the virus.
The district says vaccine rates in the community continue to climb and it’s hoped that a decrease in community and school-based cases will follow.
Cowichan Valley School Board Chair Candace Spilsbury says it was “a tremendously hard decision to come to and the Board deliberated on it for
quite some time.”
The Board has the option to reconsider if there are changes in the COVID-19 pandemic. or upon further advice from health professionals.
