Northwest ISD approves paying back employees for February closure

The Northwest ISD school board will pay back employees who could not come to work when the district shut down all schools Feb. 24 and had a delayed opening Feb. 25 due to winter weather.

At the Northwest ISD board of trustees March 21 meeting, the board approved a resolution that will pay back all employees for the time they couldn’t come into work to make up for their lost wages.

The district closed all schools Feb. 24 and had a delayed opening of two hours on Feb. 25 due to ice on the roadways, according to district information.

The memo states wages for hourly employees for the day off and two-hour delay total $125,000, but it will not affect Northwest ISD’s payroll budget for the 2021-22 school year.

Northwest ISD has already approved two similar resolutions—one for the Feb. 3-4 closure, and the other for the Jan. 14 and 18 closure.

Just like the other two wage repayment resolutions, the March 21 resolution applies to all regular employees—not just hourly. NISD Executive Director of Communications Anthony Tosie said other full-time employee pay is already covered by contracts.