When schools fully reopen next Monday, the Vernon School District has told parents not to expect contact tracing and exposure notifications to continue.
In a statement posted on the school district’s website, the district said previous contract tracing and notification practices were “not sustainable.”
“The situation is no longer the same. Many more people will get the new variant. The good news is that most people are now protected from serious illness through vaccination,” the district said.
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The president of the Vernon Teachers’ Association (VTA) said the union is “not super happy” about the idea of contract tracing and exposure notifications ending.
“I understand how taxing contract tracing can be on the health system, especially with the Omicron variant; however, it is important for all staff, students, and parents to know what the status in the school might be,” said VTA president Cori Huizer in an email to Global News.
“Many students aged 5-17 aren’t fully vaccinated yet…This adds to the anxiousness of all persons involved with education if it is unknown where the positive cases are.”
Huizer pointed out that only 34 per cent of Vernon area kids aged 5 to 11 had their first dose as of Jan. 4. Among 12-17-year-olds in Vernon who have been eligible for vaccination longer, 75 per cent have had two doses.
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It’s not just the Vernon School District that is expecting a change in COVID communications, though. The province has said changes are coming B.C.-wide.
However, the province has not specified exactly what parents should expect when it comes to contact tracing and exposure notifications.
“We are really trying to sort out how we can make sure that there is a clear and coherent communication process out to the school community about what is happening in schools, but it is not going to look like the case-by-case notification process that we’ve seen in the past just based on sheer numbers,” said B.C. Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside, in an interview with Global News on Wednesday.
“We’ve had that message very clear from public health.”
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More details about schools reopening are expected to be provided on Friday morning when, B.C.’s education minister appears at a press conference with the health minister and provincial health officer.
“Some other sorts of processes will be coming out in the next day or two from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education so we are just waiting to hear what process that will be,” said Vernon superintendent Christine Perkins.
“I honestly think that we need to trust our health-care system. They have managed to get us through the last two years.”
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With contact tracing not expected to continue, the VTA is urging everyone to recommit to strictly following the school masking policy.
Huizer said, in December, “everyone was getting a little bit lazy on the masks.”
“It’s a lot for teachers to have to remind kids all the time to keep it on…It is a lot about peer pressures and things like that. They are saying, ‘Hey, that person doesn’t have to wear one, I’m not going to wear one,’” said Huizer.
“Younger grades, they are just young and so if there is any inkling that the parents don’t think masks are important then that shows up in the classrooms as well. So we are just asking everyone to be very diligent in [masking] this time.”
The district superintendent is also stressing that following the masking rule is important.
“I honestly don’t think it is a push by the teachers’ association, I think it is a public health order, so province-wide we are to be wearing our masks. So let’s just all do it and help each other out,” Perkins said.