The PISD board of trustees at its Jan. 18 board meeting adopted the resolution to extend COVID-19 leave through February. According to agenda documents, the second extension of employee sick leave related to COVID-19 ended on Dec. 31 but the board of trustees chose to extend it due to the omicron variant.
“We are recommending three [days off], and part of the rationale is of course with the omicron variant and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s] new regulations, the time of quarantining has been reduced to five days,” Superintendent John Kelly said. “So we are saying, essentially, if we grant three and the employee takes two ... both the employee and the district share the cost.”
In order for a PISD employee to qualify for COVID-19 leave, they must have a lab-confirmed case that requires isolation, according to agenda documents. Direct COVID-19-related sick leave allows for extended leave but cannot exceed three workdays, agenda documents read. If an employee has missed any time after Jan. 1 because of COVID-19 and documented it with the district, PISD will assign those absences as COVID-19-related for up to three days, according to agenda documents.
Had the resolution failed, employees would need to use their own state and local personal or sick days when isolating, which could have resulted in some employees running out of their allotted days, according to agenda documents.
