Employees of the Union Public School District who have received a novel coronavirus vaccination will be eligible for paid leave without using sick days if they test positive for COVID-19 during the early part of this school year.
The action was taken during a special called Board of Trustees meeting Aug. 19. While the meeting was posted at the school board offices, The Newton County Appeal was not informed of the meeting. In accordance with the Open Meetings Act, the newspaper had formally requested to be notified of all meetings within an hour of when the meeting was scheduled (not when the meeting occurs).
Superintendent Tyler Hansford said the 4-0 vote came after the board had a lengthy discussion about the COVID-19 leave policy. Eric Graham was the only board member to abstain from voting on the matter.
Last year when the pandemic began, the federal emergency declaration mandated COVID-19 leave for all employees who were out due to testing positive for the coronavirus through Dec. 31, 2020. Hansford said the district chose to extend it to March 31, 2021. They chose not to extend it further at that time.
This vote reinstituted COVID leave for district employees.
“Under the discretion given to the board in policy GBRI, the Board voted to extend paid leave up to 10 days to those who had received the vaccine yet still tested positive for COVID, retroactive to Aug. 1, 2021, and extending through the end of the declared state of emergency from Gov. (Tate) Reeves,” Hansford said.
That declaration is currently scheduled to expire on Sept. 15. Hansford said vaccinated employees would be eligible for the leave as long as the emergency declaration stays in effect.
Hansford said one of the biggest points of discussion was the fact that granting that leave universally to all employees creates a large financial liability for the district. The district has already paid $74,000 in COVID-19 leave from the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year through March 31.
Hansford said most of the COVID-19 leave was covered with the first installment of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. However, no monies were allocated for employee leave in the second and third rounds of federal funding.
“Nobody really saw this newest wave coming when we were budgeting this school year,” Hansford said. “We have already sent off our budgets for ESSER II and ESSER III, and they have already been approved by the state department of education. We didn’t include any funding for COVID leave. We chose to focus on upgrading facilities because we had no idea things would get this bad.”
From March 31 through the end of the school year, only three UPSD employees had to quarantine due to a positive test. Hansford said the school board wanted to consider adding COVID-19 leave because of the spike in cases, but they knew they did not have any money allocated in the current budget or federal funding to cover this expense.
“A couple of the board members came up with the idea of only covering those employees who had been vaccinated,” Hansford said. “They felt like those employees who chose to receive the vaccine had followed the guidance of the health experts, but we didn’t know that it didn’t do as much as we thought it would to prevent them from getting the virus.”
Hansford said he does not know how many of their staff have received the vaccine, as they have not required employees to disclose that medical information, but fully vaccinated employees have fewer restrictions related to COVID-19 protocols provided by the State Department of Public Health.
For instance, vaccinated employees do not have to submit to testing every other day when they came in close contact with a positive-testing employee or student or contact outside of school.
“This is just another benefit for employees who are vaccinated,” Hansford said. “We haven’t asked them their vaccination status. I don’t feel like it’s right for us to do that, but employees can prove their vaccination status to receive these benefits.”
While paid COVID-19 leave will not be granted for unvaccinated employees, he said unvaccinated employees can still use their accrued sick or other leave days to prevent loss of salary during an absence.
