It will cost the Kamloops-Thompson School District just under $14,000 a month to rapid test any employees that cannot or will not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The district has brought in a COVID-19 vaccine policy for all staff, which will come into effect by May 9 at the latest.

Associate Superintendent of Human Resources, Shayne Olsen, says they’ve also been told that there is an ample supply of rapid tests available to school districts that need it.

“SD73 has registered with the program that will provide us with tests on a regular basis,” he said. “Based upon the timeline that you will see, it would be starting in May of this year, that the tests will be provided to us and then we’ll be able to provide those in person or potentially for those rural areas so that they have those tests.”

Speaking to the Board of Trustees this week, Olsen said 96 per cent of the 1,181 school district employees who voluntarily disclosed their vaccine status last month said they were fully vaccinated. However, he noted that number accounted for just under half of all staff employed by the school district.

“The information that we gathered there when we combined with past information that we’ve had, really doesn’t change what we knew before which is potentially half of our employees could use rapid testing and that rapid testing option would be most likely necessary to ensure that the district would be able to provide the services to our students,” Olsen said.

“In this particular case, we are talking about in person testing but with the exception of those in our rural areas. They would be done a means such as Zoom where they would have virtual in person testing to collaborate that the test was done and what the results were.”

Board Chair Heather Grieve told NL News that no SD73 employee will lose their job as a result of their vaccination status.

“It will be a requirement for staff to either show proof of vaccination or the procedure will be put in place for rapid testing,” she said. “And again, the rapid testing would be provided at the cost of the employer not the employee.”

“If people are showing negative test results, they would be able to attend work as per usual regardless of their vaccination status.”

The SD73 vaccine policy will be in effect until June 30, though it could be extended further after review, if needed.

– With files from Jeff Andreas