Fox C-6 School District employees who test positive for COVID-19 may take up to five additional days of leave this school year.
Employees already are eligible to take between eight and 10 days of leave every school year, depending on their years of service with the district, Fox officials said.
Board of Education members voted 6-1 Dec. 28 to offer the five additional COVID-19 sick days for staff members who test positive for the virus, with board member Michelle Chamberlain casting the lone negative vote.
Staff members may receive the additional time off after they provide the district with proof of a positive test from a pharmacy, hospital or personal health care provider.
The extra leave days may be used retroactively if employees already took days off because of COVID-19 after Nov. 18, when the district stopped requiring people to wear masks inside buildings.
The five COVID-19 leave days are available until June 30.
The Dec. 28 vote was a change of course for the board, which two weeks earlier, on Dec. 14, voted 5-2 in a closed meeting to offer the additional sick days only to staff members who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Previously, when masks were required, we felt we had taken all steps necessary to mitigate staff exposure to COVID while having almost all students in person,” said assistant superintendent of human resources Kelly Bracht when the board was considering giving the extra days just to vaccinated staff members. “Now that the district is masks recommended (rather than required), there is an additional level of possible exposure that staff are encountering on a daily basis. Vaccinated staff have chosen to take an extra step to decrease their chances of contracting COVID.
“When staff are absent, whether due to COVID or any other reason, we need subs. There is currently a huge sub shortage not only in the district, but across the state and nation, and the district wants to show appreciation for employees who have chosen to take the extra step of getting vaccinated, which decreases the chance that those employees will be absent as a result of contracting COVID.”
For the Dec. 14 decision, board president Judy Smith and board members Krystal Hargis, Carole Yount, Jim Chellew and Vicki Hanson voted in favor of the additional leave days for vaccinated employees, and Chamberlain and April Moeckel voted against the additional days.
Before that 5-2 vote, the board considered giving the vaccinated employees just three extra days off, but that motion failed when the board deadlocked, with Smith, Yount and Moeckel voting for the three-day plan, Hargis, Chamberlain and Hanson voting against it and Chellew abstaining from the vote.
Smith said some board members felt employees needed more than three days.
District officials said the board extended the extra sick days to all employees on Dec. 28 after receiving complaints from employees about them being offered to vaccinated staff members only.
Fox officials said the initial decision to grant COVID-19-specific leave days was made in a closed meeting because it was being negotiated with a teacher group, and negotiated items typically are reserved for closed session.
The Dec. 28 vote was not based on a negotiated item, so it was not held in a closed session, according to district officials.
Fox said the district has 1,518 employees. The district said 59 percent of those employees have reported being fully vaccinated against the virus.
Fox does not require staff members to be vaccinated or to report that they have been vaccinated. The district does not know if any of the fully vaccinated employees have received a booster shot, officials said.