The Twin Rivers R-I school district adopted a new COVID-19 policy at its Jan. 20 meeting to protect staffers’ sick days.
Instead of using their own sick days to quarantine, full-time employees’ first five days of absence due to COVID will no longer be deducted from their leave time, provided they can produce a positive test administered by a health care professional.
The motion was made by Lee Wright, seconded by Billy Watson and passed almost unanimously. The decision was reached after the entire district shut down due to COVID-19 and other illnesses two weeks ago.
“I don’t think people were prepared for such a spike when Omicron hit,” said superintendent Ben Johnson.
Earlier in the pandemic, the federal government approved a similar measure allowing teachers to quarantine without burning through their time off, but the policy was lifted before the Omicron variant hit.
Instead of waiting for the state or national government to reinstate the rule, which Johnson doubts would happen in a timely manner, “We thought we’d initiate something of our own to help with that.”
The motion contains a clause stating the board can rescind the new rule if the federal government issues a comparable one.
The measure is also retroactive all the way to July 1, 2021, if staff can provide positive tests they took for their absence in that period.
Johnson noted the decision has received positive feedback from teachers and that no district employees are currently out sick with COVID-19.