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VOL. 38 • No. 19
MANOTICK, ONTARIO
www.manotickmessenger.ca
Friday September 10, 2021
Masks for kindergarteners, vaccines for teachers as school resumes By Jeff Morris
Ottawa Carleton District School Board trustees voted to extend its mask policy to include kindergarten students. The decision was made at a meeting held Aug. 31. The OCDSB was the last of Ottawa’s four school boards to pass a motion to extend the mask policy to kindergarten students. The Ottawa Catholic School Board, as well as the French public and French Catholic school boards had also passed similar motions. Provincial regulations in place for COVID-19 only require masks to be worn by students from Grade 1 and up. Each school board, however, had the option to implement stricter mask policies. Ottawa Public Health supports the move to include kindergarten students in the mask policy. Another motion that passed at the Aug. 31 OCDSB meeting was that all volunteers,
Teachers at South Carleton High School and other schools will be required to be fully vaccinated for the 2021-22 school year. Jeff Morris photo
including coaches, at OCDSB schools are to be fully vaccinated for the 2021-22 school year. Trustee Lyra Evans had six motions on the table. In addition to the motions for extending masks to kindergarten
MAKE MORE.
and mandating that volunteers are fully vaccinated, there was also discussion of requiring all staff members at OCDSB schools to be fully vaccinated. Mandatory vaccines for students, a medical education policy for students, and the
continued provision of medical-grade masks to staff members were not discussed.
Not Enough Time
The meeting ran until 11 p.m. After the designated end time, the board must vote to
PAYCHECKS.
COST LESS.
NOT DEBT. Authorized by the Official Agent of Pierre Poilievre
continue the meeting. Barrhaven-Knoxdale-Merivale Trustee Donna Blackburn voted against continuing the meeting. The board had gone through the first round of voting for mandatory vaccination of staff
members. However, after some wording adjustments and discussion, trustees ran out of time before a ratification vote could be held. The draft marked Sept. 30 as the date in which the rules for the vaccination of staff members would be put in place. Exemptions for human rights, such as medical and religious reasons, would be put in place. Blackburn defended her decision to end the meeting at 11 p.m. “Had we continued, we would have been debating and making decisions at two in the morning,” she said. “This is not how decisions of this magnitude should be made. We have to do better as a board. Think of the parents. These are the most important decisions of the school year for them. Would they want people making these decisions at 2 a.m.?”
school
continues on page 3