Both the Prairie South School Division and the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division are moving towards administrative procedures to mandate vaccinations or negative COVID-19 tests for staff members. 

During its school board meeting on Tuesday, Prairie South trustees voted 7-3 to move forward with a COVID-19 procedure. The motion read “That the director of education put in place a COVID-19 administrative procedure and that that administrative procedure excludes all students. 

Voting against the motion was trustees Mary Jukes, John Bumbac, and Darcy Pryor. 

Much of the discussion revolved around whether it was the school division’s job to implement mandatory vaccinations or proof of a negative test and the lack of guidance from the provincial government. 

Jukes voted against the motion because she simply didn’t know what to do and didn’t have enough information. 

“I always get told it's not your business, get in your own sandbox and is this our sandbox? Or should we be saying to Saskatchewan Health do your job?” Jukes said. 

“I've been around education for a long time, and I believe that we've carried Saskatchewan Health for a long, long time and maybe it's about time we said to Sask. Health, do your job and we will do our job, and our job is to educate kids.” 

Bumbac took it a step further, saying that it wasn’t their job to come up with a mandate for staff or students. 

“I would strongly suggest that we pass this back to Premier Moe and his experts. I'll reiterate, I don't feel qualified, I'm not a health expert,” he said. 

Pryor voiced her displeasure in forcing a mandate on anyone. 

“It goes against my own ethics and morals to force, coerce, or mandate an individual to act in opposition of their own values, morals or human rights. All eligible community members have had every opportunity to be vaccinated by now,” she said.  

“Those who have chosen vaccinations have had them. We have witnessed and lived out the effectiveness of precautions such as masking, sanitizing and good hygiene. If this works, why do we need to mandate the vaccine or testing? I value the importance of vaccines and as a community doing our part to be safe, I worry about the long-term consequences if we do not take our time to carefully consider this administrative procedure.” 

Trustee Todd Johnson put forward the motion and felt the board needs to advocate for teachers and staff. 

“I advocated for the school staff when vaccinations first came out. I advocated for them to be moved to the front of the list, all of the school staff and I see this as an extension, so to support our staff and the students that aren't able to get vaccinated. I see that looking at something like this is really important,” he said. 

Concerns were also raised about the process of implementing an administrative procedure. Generally, administrative procedures don’t need to come back to the school board for approval.  

Director of Education Ryan Boughen said, while it would not come back to the board for approval, he will work with the trustees to make sure everyone is satisfied before anything is implemented. 

“What we just want to clarify is that is this something the school division thinks we should pursue or not pursue? So, I think if we need to change the recommendation to make it more clear, that certainly makes sense to me,” Boughen said. 

While details still need to be worked out, trustee Shawn Davidson said one item that needs to be looked at is the availability of testing for those living in rural communities. 

“In some of our more remote rural communities, accessing professional-level testing may require them to travel 2 hours to get a test,” Davidson said.  

“Obviously, the detailed procedures are yet to be finalized by administration, I understand that. But I just want to get that plugin that rapid testing, given our geographic situation should be acceptable proof of negativity.” 

In a statement on Monday, The Holy Trinity Catholic Division announced that they will be implementing a procedure to ensure that all staff are vaccinated or provide a negative COVID-19 test.  

The statement added that this procedure will be in effect for all employees as well as trustees, volunteers, individuals on internships, co-op placements, or apprenticeship programs.  

“Proof of vaccination is not required for students’ in-class learning. If a student is determined to be a close contact, proof of student vaccination or virus-free status will be required for further participation in extra-curricular activities,” The Holy Trinity School Division added in their statement.  

Further information about Holy Trinity’s procedure, such as an implementation date, is expected to be announced in the following weeks. 

- With files from Swift Current Online’s Ally Paige