Dear VTT Families,
I wanted to update our families regarding our mask policies at school. Up until now, our focus has been on creating a culture around protecting community and loved ones. Our students have continued to rise to the challenges caused by this pandemic. One of the challenges is, of course, following the many health and safety protocols in place. For many, this means everything from making hard, but necessary decisions around limiting one’s social life to remembering and committing to sanitize in and out of every room in the school. Each protocol provides a layer of protection and the hope is that together, they form a web of safety around our community to minimize the potential for transmission when exposures occur.
Our teachers have been at the heart of creating a culture of compliance with protocols. They strive to be examples to their students of abiding by safety protocols. As they work to ensure that all students participate in doing their part, our teachers also depend on the protection that these measures will provide so that they can continue to come to work and not bring illness home to their families and loved ones. With all of the above in mind, together with our Occupational Health and Safety Committee and union, VTT is making an important move to mandate the wearing of masks by ALL adults in the building at all times with exception to when they are eating, alone in their office/classroom or outdoors at a safe distance.
As we continue to see numbers rise, so too must our proactive measures increase. As such, we believe this is timely and appropriate given the trajectory of COVID-19 in BC and also the province’s latest restrictions. See details on the new provincial order here.
Families should know that the province has recently mandated the wearing of masks in all public spaces except schools. Although we are not yet mandating masks from Grades 4-7 in all locations, we are working to build a culture of wearing masks as much as possible. Our staff will be encouraging students and applauding their use of masks, but we will also continue to ensure that all of the other layers of protection we have put in place are being followed. At this time, our medical health advisory and VTT is highly recommending and encouraging the wearing of masks by students. We will continue to enforce this for Grades 4-7 in all common spaces and high traffic areas and classrooms. Students must be reminded that masks are not to be worn in place of proper physical distancing, sanitization practices or screening procedures for illness.
In an effort to continue to encourage our families and students to understand the importance of wearing masks to protect our community, loved ones and ourselves, VTT is launching a PR campaign where we can share photos of our families in masks and share why we are wearing them. If you are interested in participating, we encourage families to submit their photos to [email protected]. If you wish to post your photos on your social media feed, feel free to use the hashtag, #VTTMasksUp. In the meantime, below is my family photo.
