Suneet Gill
The Richmond School District spent about $110,000 on health and wellness for employees during the 2022/23 school year, according to a recent finance report.
The expenditures were made to help employees with stress and anxiety and keep absences down, according to the school board chair.
The top share of the Foundations of a Healthy Workplace program — about $52,000 — went to a subscription for Calm, a meditation and sleep app.
“Our school district, the employees really liked the Calm app, and I’ve actually used it myself,” said Debbie Tablotney, chair of the Richmond Board of Education.
“It’s a really good tool for stress and anxiety and mental health in general (but) also sleep,” she added. “We want our employees to be healthy and able to come to work refreshed and stay refreshed throughout the day, so that’s why we felt that it was very important to supply these tools for them to use.”
The school district also put another $50,000 towards shingles vaccines for employees aged 50 and over, as well as an additional $2,500 for pneumonia vaccines.
The shingles vaccine, which isn’t covered by MSP, consists of two doses that cost $160 each, according to Immunize BC.
Apart from keeping employees healthy, Tablotney said offering the vaccines are for addressing staffing issues.
“We’re looking at absences and reducing the number of absences because at this point, we’ve got a shortage of EAs, and we’re working really hard to get teachers in classrooms and keeping them there,” she says. “Especially as the weather gets darker and more dismal, we experience more absentee issues.”
The school district also used about $5,600 for online and in-person yoga classes.
Use of the district’s employee assistance program, which is separate from Foundations of a Healthy Workplace, rose significantly last year due to “increasing and enduring challenges of working in the public school system during the COVID-19 pandemic,” read the report.
The number of hours employees used for counselling increased by almost 85 per cent, from an average of 1,200 hours per year to 2,200 hours in the 2022/23 school year.
“There’s also some social-economical issues as well. Families are struggling, people are having to live busier lives and balance their work and home life,” Tablotney said.
