School District No. 46 (SD46) is contemplating a change to the student health regulation that will allow “mature minors” to consent to immunizations at school without the consent of parents.
The change to the regulation will bring SD46 in line with what the rest of public schools in the province are doing, board chair Betty Baxter said.
The “mature minor” designation is not tied to an age, but rather to the public health nurse’s discretion, director of instruction and student support services Vanessa White said.
“It’s up to their professional judgement. They have a long conversation, they go through all of the risks and the side effects and the benefits and ensure that the student is truly understanding,” White said. “It is their call as a health professional.”
The proposed student health regulation change will be in circulation until Feb. 8, 2016 and members of the public are invited to comment on it until that time through the SD46 website. Go to www.sd46.bc.ca and click on the Policies and Regulations tab and then Regulation Response Form to provide your input.
Syrian students
At the Dec. 8 school board meeting superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking said B.C. is expecting an influx of about 1,000 Syrian students before the school year’s up and that SD46 may be the recipient of some of those students.
“The number of those to be coming here will depend on the kind of sponsorship that they receive here on the Coast. There are some active groups that are looking at sponsoring refugees, so we’re excited about that. We would be very enthusiastic welcoming these new students of ours and making sure they are as successful as they possibly can be,” Bocking said.
He noted the Syrian students will need some extra support and said discussions around how to provide that support are now underway.
“They’ll have academic issues, they’ll have very possibly some mental health issues. They’ve dealt with things that most of us can’t even imagine, so we’ll need to support them through that and make sure that they’re comfortable and supported, as we do with all of our students,” Bocking said.
Child care
Secretary treasurer Nicholas Weswick told trustees that the Ministry of Children and Family Development announced some “major capital funding to support child care spaces” in the province and that SD46 could be the recipient of some funds.
“There’s an advantageous relationship for child care spaces in schools to be created where they provide up to 90 per cent of the capital cost either to create new spaces, add additional spaces, purchase land or facilities,” Weswick said, noting it was an “interesting opportunity.”
“There may be an opportunity to have a direct submission from the school board to purchase a modular perhaps for one of our sites. So we’re going to be exploring that as a potential opportunity.”
Submissions must be made to the ministry by the end of February, and Weswick noted more information will be brought to the board about possibilities in the future.
“Just wanted to at least signal that we’re looking at that very closely,” he said.
Upgrade project
The school board received $371,000 from the Ministry of Education for a new direct digital control upgrade project.
“This is basically at all of our sites going through our HVAC systems, optimizing them for efficiency, ensuring that all of the hardware is up to date and works well together, adding occupancy sensors and so on,” Weswick said.
“The manager of facilities and our consultant are both really excited about this as it has pretty significant potential to reduce energy consumption in our district.”
