Board adopts covid sick leave policy

WEST SILOAM SPRINGS, Okla. — The town board of trustees and municipal authority adopted the state guidelines regarding coronavirus-related sick leave during the town meeting.

Trustees and municipal authority members voted 4-0 to adopt the state guidelines as their own coronavirus sick leave policy. Trustee Marty Thompson was not present at the meeting.

Trustee Linda Dixon put this item on the meeting’s agenda because people are getting ill.

“We haven’t had anybody test positive yet but we don’t have anything in play as far as what we’re going to do,” Dixon said.

Dixon asked fellow Trustee Sam Byers to check a couple of different places for coronavirus sick leave policies the town could use, she said.

Byers recommended the Oklahoma State Department of Health policy, which Byers said will allow an employee who has the coronavirus to return to work on the seventh day of their quarantine if they test negative on the fifth day of that quarantine.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health did not immediately return a request for information regarding the policy.

The Center for Disease Control recently recommended lowering the amount of time spent in quarantine from 14 days to 10 days without a coronavirus test and seven days after receiving a negative test on the fifth day or later, according to cdc. gov.

Byers also brought up Jay, Okla., Public Schools’ policy, which has set aside 10 covid days for staff needing to be quarantined. Once an employee uses up their 10 days, any future quarantine period needed would be deducted from that employee’s sick time balance, Byers said.

Jay Public Schools was unavailable for comment.

This was done, Byers said, to keep people from abusing the sick time policy. Dixon said she knew people from school systems in Tulsa, Okla., and locally who were abusing sick leave policies.

Town Attorney Jot Hartley said he did not have a chance to research what the state policy is for reinfection, which he says has been well documented. Hartley did recommend the board of trustees and municipal authority adopt the state guidelines during the meeting and if changes in the policy need to occur, the board can revisit it in future meetings.