Louis Riel School Division moves ahead with vaccination requirement for students in extracurricular activities

A Winnipeg school division is moving forward with plans to mandate vaccinations among eligible students who wish to take part in extracurricular activities.

The Louis Riel School Division previously suggested it was considering requiring students 12 and up be immunized against COVID-19 if they wanted to play sports or join other after-school groups.

On Wednesday, division superintendent Christian Michalik confirmed those plans are moving ahead, though the policy could take longer to implement than expected.

"There's a lot more risk involved where masks aren't being worn, students in close proximity, and so on," he said. "We thought, here's an area of activity where we should mitigate risks."

Michalik said he wants to get other school divisions on board before officially enacting the policy.

"We can't go it alone," he said. "This policy won't make any sense in the end if we're not able to bring others along to talk and to come to a decision."

Michalik is still seeking feedback from parents, students and coaches.

He said a recent meeting with metro Winnipeg division superintendents was promising. If the division can't get buy-in from other divisions, Louis Riel will still consider its own policy, Michalik said.

Louis Riel was the first division in August to announce it would mandate vaccinations for school workers. 

Shortly after, the provincial government announced it would be mandating vaccination for all school workers in the public education system. School staff have until Oct. 17 to prove they've received two doses, or submit to testing several times a week.

Louis Riel got the ball rolling earlier than some divisions in terms of planning. 

It already had a verification process in place before teachers and students went back to school. As of Wednesday, Michalik says roughly 95 per cent of staff have been fully vaccinated.

"That's good because it means they're mitigating risk for themselves," he said. "That's very reassuring."

About 97 staff in the division who have opted not to get vaccinated, or are only partially vaccinated, must get COVID-19 tested three times per week using rapid test kits the division has procured from the provincial government. Results are ready in 15 minutes or less, said Michalik.

Staff self-administer two of the weekly tests themselves, then notify the division of the result via a survey, which then gets relayed to the employee's supervisor. At least one of the three tests per week must be supervised from within division headquarters.

"It's going well," Michalik said. "It's been an amazing collective effort to get here."

He said those students who aren't vaccinated and want to participate in extracurriculars could instead be tested three times a week, like school staff.