The Northwest ISD board of trustees authorized a pair of resolutions at its Sept. 13 meeting related to COVID-19 leave policy for district employees.

The resolutions allow eligible employees to take time during the workday to receive and recover from the COVID-19 vaccine without using sick or personal leave and use paid COVID-19 illness leave before other paid leave.

These resolutions follow the board’s authorization to extend its COVID-19 illness leave for employees who contract COVID-19 or are the caretaker of someone with COVID-19 through the 2021-22 school year for all regular employees—including those who are contractual, noncontractual, salaried and nonsalaried—at its Aug. 9 meeting.

Approval of the first resolution for COVID-19 vaccine leave means eligible employees will get additional leave of up to two half-days for getting the vaccine or booster on a weekday. The resolution will also allow vaccinated employees to use one day of their 10-day COVID-19 leave the day after each dose of the vaccine or booster to recover from side effects, if needed.

“This will allow staff members not to have to use their own personal time to [get the COVID-19 vaccine],” NISD Superintendent Ryder Warren said. “And I think that's a very smart thing to do.”

After authorizing this resolution, the board approved a resolution amending the COVID-19 illness leave to let all employees use paid COVID-19 leave before other paid leave.

The resolution was presented at the Sept. 13 meeting with two versions because Warren said it was originally acting as an incentive for staff to get vaccinated. The first version of the resolution stipulated that vaccinated employees could elect to use paid COVID-19 leave before other paid leave, while unvaccinated employees could “request an accommodation” to elect to use paid COVID-19 leave before other paid leave, and “such requests will be evaluated pursuant to applicable law,” according to the first version of the resolution.

However, the second version of the resolution allows both vaccinated and unvaccinated employees to elect to use paid COVID-19 leave before other paid leave, rather than just vaccinated employees.

Warren recommended the board approve the second version that extends the policy to all employees after he said he met with two district councils last week and gave them a poll asking if staff members wanted all employees or just vaccinated employees to have the ability to use COVID-19 leave before other paid leave.

A majority—68%—of the about 575 staff members who participated voted for the ability to use COVID-19 leave before other paid leave to be extended to all employees, Warren said.

“My recommendation, looking at it again [and] having enough conversations with the staff, would be that we allow everyone to be able to utilize that—and then look for new ways to incentivize what we can through the vaccine,” Warren said.

As of Sept. 13, NISD had 357 positive COVID-19 cases. However, Warren noted that Sept. 13 marked the sixth day the district had not seen an increase in positive COVID-19 cases, and the fifth day the district had seen a decrease in positive cases.