The Wright City R-II School District has extended a provision for employees impacted by COVID-19 and subsequent missed days of work. The district’s school board voted during its monthly meeting on Jan. 21 to continue participation in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) through the remainder of the 2020-21 school year, adding 10 days of leave for staff use.

This program was mandated under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (ESPL) during the fall semester but expired Dec. 31, 2020. R-II analyzed its data from the first three weeks of the second semester and determined an ongoing need.

“We were monitoring the utilization of this relief, and we got hit so hard coming back from break that we made a recommendation to the board to extend it through the end of the year,” said R-II Superintendent Dr. Chris Berger. “We were among several districts considering this, and several others who were hit harder had already done so. The good news is it further supports our teachers.”

R-II had the option to offer the additional 10 days of leave for staff forced to stay home as a direct result of COVID-19. This provision applies to employees who are caring for their spouse, child or parent as defined under the Family and Medical Leave Act. 

“An employee can apply for more days, but there’s a little tighter restrictions for those days,” said Berger. “If you go on leave for COVID or close contact, you had to have been exposed or identified as a close contact in the work setting.”

This relief does not cover absences to care for a child whose school or daycare is closed or for persons who are especially vulnerable to the virus but have not been exposed.

“If it’s the contact tracing, we’ll be able to nail it down,” said Berger. “If it’s true exposure to COVID, that gets a little more difficult. We’d err on side of the employee.”

Before taking advantage of the FFCRA COVID-19 leave, employees are required to use at least three days of their accumulated paid leave.

Despite having returned from the semester break to full hallways and classrooms, R-II quickly found many staff and students back in quarantine. 

“It’s been largely among our staff,” said Berger. “Our students have stayed relatively steady but the spike has been within our staff.”

That presents a unique challenge in keeping the buildings open.

“There are two things that could cause us to shut down — if we lose staff or if we can’t provide a safe environment for our students,” said Berger. “If that happens it will be a judgment call of how we can get things supervised.”

While R-II has made it through this school year without yet having to close any buildings, Wright City West Elementary was on the brink.

“We’ve gotten close to that threshold, and last week West was close enough that we were monitoring it every day,” said Berger. “We managed to make it through and had a lot of students returning on Monday from being positive. We are entering this week optimistic that the worst is behind us.”