Board told school employees may lose covid-19 leave pay

SILOAM SPRINGS — Since the coronavirus pandemic began last spring, School District employees have been eligible for federaland state-funded covid-19 leave if they or their children had to quarantine or isolate because of the virus.

However, that will change if Congress doesn’t pass a new stimulus bill or the state doesn’t choose to set aside additional monies by Dec. 31, Superintendent Jody Wiggins told School Board members.

Thanks to CARES Act money the state received from the federal government, school employees haven’t had to dip into their sick days or personal leave, but have instead been eligible for up to 10 days of state leave, which is reimbursable to the School District, and 10 days of federal leave, which isn’t reimbursable, he said.

Starting Jan. 1, the protections will be gone and employees who are out because of covid-19 illness or on quarantine will fall under normal sick leave policies if changes aren’t made, he said.

To give School Board members an idea of the magnitude of the problem, Wiggins said the district applied for $ 80,000 in reimbursements for August, September and October, covering every day a teacher or faculty member was gone for covid-19 leave. In November, the district requested $ 72,000 and although the numbers for December have not been submitted, they will be substantial, he said.

“The money that was set aside for that at the state level is going to be gone in the next couple of weeks,” Wiggins said. “We are just trying to make you all aware of that and make our faculty aware of that as well.”

Wiggins said he and several other Northwest Arkansas superintendents met with six state legislators who serve on the house or senate education committees last week.

One of the issues that came up was an idea to hold school districts harmless for decreases in student enrollment for next year’s funding, he said. Siloam Springs, along with schools across the state, have lost enrollment this year, which could cause them to take a financial hit next year, he said.

For example, Siloam Springs was down about 200 students at the beginning of the year. The school receives around $7,000 in state money for each student, which could add up to more than $1 million, he said.

In other business, School Board members voted unanimously to deny a background check waiver to food service employee Amanda Hittson.

Hittson has been employed in the high school cafeteria for more than a year, Wiggins said. School employees are required to pass state, federal and Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services background checks, he said.

Hittson’s background check was delayed, but the School District recently received a letter from the Arkansas Department of Education stating she is not eligible for employment by a public school, school district or educational service cooperative, Wiggins said.

While the School District’s copy does not state why Hittson isn’t eligible because of state law, Hittson also received a copy of the letter with more details about her offenses, which she provided to the School Board. Hittson’s letter, dated Nov. 2, states her disqualifying offenses related to three charges of endangering the welfare of a minor in 2009.

According to both the letter and state law, employees may obtain a waiver from their local school district.

Hittson appeared before the board in person Thursday to appeal her case and also provided the School Board with five letters from family members, co-workers and her manager, vouching for her character. State law required the proceedings to take place in open session, Wiggins said.

Hittson said the charges stemmed from an incident that occurred when she was 22, caring for her two young children alone and babysitting another child. Hittson said she went to the apartment next door to get some baby formula while the children were napping and was gone no longer than 15 minutes. While she was next door, one of the babies woke with a fever and began crying and a neighbor called the police, she said.

Hittson said she is a different person now and has not been in any trouble since the incident.

“I absolutely love my job and I don’t want to lose my job,” she said. “I know its crazy for a 33-year-old to be standing up here and saying she loves working in a lunchroom at a high school, but I do.”

She said she has since had another child and a judge gave her and her husband custody of his two children, despite the offenses on her background check.

Board member Connie Matchell asked if she disclosed the offenses on her employment application.

Hittson replied she has been upfront about her past to co-workers, principals, counselors and teachers and that she either misunderstood the question or accidentally checked the wrong box on her employment application when it asked if she had ever been charged with any misdemeanors, even as small as a traffic violation.

Board member Travis Jackson asked if Hittson was aware the offenses would come up on her background checks.

Hittson said she worked as a cafeteria substitute after the incident occurred in 2009, but was dismissed when the offenses showed up on her background check. She said that after several months of working at the School District this time and not hearing anything, she thought the offenses may have dropped off her record.

Wiggins said he isn’t sure why the background checks took so long to complete and speculated the Department of Education may have been backlogged, which may have been compounded by the covid-19 shutdown. After the meeting, Wiggins said because of the length of time the extensive background checks take, people are occasionally put to work before they are complete. Most people are hired in the summer and have their background checks completed before school beings in the fall, but occasionally it doesn’t work out that way, he said.

Since the Department of Education cannot share any information with school districts about why someone has been told they can’t work for a public school, it puts school board members in a bad position because the only way to know exactly what happened is from the person requesting the waiver, Wiggins said.

“I am not questioning Amanda’s truthfulness in any way. I think Amanda is a good person and has been a good worker for us, but that to me puts you all (the School Board) in the impossible situation of making a judgment call on something that you are only hearing one side of,” Wiggins said. “So for that reason and for the fact that I don’t want to put us in a position where we set a precedent going forward, I would recommend that you all deny the waiver.”

“This is a real difficult situation because the letters you submitted really show you have been a good employee and that your co- workers care greatly, which makes this difficult,” Matchell said.

After the vote was taken, board president Brian Lamb said, “The motion carries and we are really sorry.”