The Northwest ISD board of trustees agreed to pay hourly employees who could not come to work when the district shut down all schools for two days earlier this month due to rapid COVID-19 spread and staff shortages.

On Jan. 13, NISD Superintendent Ryder Warren announced that the district would close all schools and buildings Jan. 14 and 18 because of the surge in COVID-19 cases and following staff shortages. According to a district memo from the Jan. 24 board meeting, “unprecedented numbers” of staff got sick and couldn’t work, causing the “emergency closure.”

On Jan. 24, trustees approved paying hourly employees who were instructed not to work because of the shutdown. The approval will make up for the wages lost both days, the memo stated.

While the resolution applies to hourly employees, NISD Executive Director of Communications Anthony Tosie said other full-time employee pay is already covered by contracts.

“We still need to take care of those folks who clock in for us every day,” NISD Superintendent Ryder Warren said at the meeting. “And they deserve to be paid, we feel.”