There are quite a few occasional and temporary employees at the St. Clair Catholic School Board who aren’t yet vaccinated.

Each school board in Ontario has to publicly report the vaccination rates within their schools. At the St. Clair District Catholic School Board about 92 per cent of all school employees – like full time teachers and support staff – are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have their first shot.

But the rate of vaccination is much lower for occasional and temporary teachers and what the board calls other individuals, regular volunteers in the schools and bus drivers included. The board has 1,068 people in those categories and about 75 per cent of them have reported their vaccine status to the board.

Of those reporting, 75 per cent of occasional and temporary employees – including teachers – have been vaccinated and 72.4 per cent of volunteers and bus drivers have had both COVID shots.

That means there are 145 occasional and temporary teachers and 191 individuals who either are not vaccinated or haven’t submitted their vaccine status yet. That’s about 17 per cent of the people working in Catholic schools in the region.

About eight per cent of the 1,975 Catholic board employees haven’t reported their vaccine status yet.

The Lambton-Kent District School Board has far fewer outstanding vaccine status reports with just two percent of the reports outstanding from the 3,105 people who work in schools.

The occasional and temporary teachers are 83.7 per cent vaccinated and 84 per cent of other individuals, including volunteers and school bus drivers are vaccinated.

Right now, there are 20 people – mostly elementary school students – in Lambton County schools who have COVID-19. Lambton Public Health believes the COVID-19 is being spread in three schools, which have been declared to be in outbreak.

Queen Elizabeth II in Petrolia has two student and one staff member ill, Gregory Hogan in Sarnia has five students with COVID. Public health lists Cathcart Boulevard School as in outbreak, but as of Oct. 27, the school board says all children have been cleared to return to school there.