District puts staff on leave 118 times
Danbury schools enforce state’s vaccine mandate
DANBURY — During the first seven weeks of the state vaccine mandate, the Danbury school district placed staff members on leave 118 times for failing to turn in their COVID-19 test results.
The “vast majority” of those employees were placed on an unpaid leave of absence for one day, said Kimberly Mango Thompson, director of human resources and legal counsel to the Board of Education. Staff typically didn’t turn in results because results weren’t back from the testing center or staff tested too close to the district’s deadline, she said.
“As soon as they cleared that issue, then they were able to report back to work,” Thompson said.
The district hasn’t terminated any employees
due to the state’s mandate that school staff either be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or submit weekly test results, she said. No employees are in the termination process.
As of Friday, 1,750 Danbury school employees — or 93 percent — are fully vaccinated, while 133 staffers are in the mandatory testing pool, Thompson said. Those figures change as new employees are hired or vaccinated.
Of the 118 leaves of absence, most employees have been placed on leave once, Thompson said. The district declined to provide the names of staffers who have been put on leave, citing the protection of health records.
“There’s a small handful of repeats, but we’ve been kind of dealing with those individually, following up with them,” Thompson said.
Who is on leave?
Extended learning and early childhood staff were placed on leave the most — 57 times between the week of Oct. 4 and the week of Nov. 15, according to the schools’ data provided to Hearst Connecticut Media through a Freedom of Information Act request.
School lunch staff had the secondhighest number of leaves, with 28 during those seven weeks.
Turnover in the extended learning program is common, so new staff members weren’t vaccinated last year through the school district and wouldn’t have been as connected to the district’s system, Thompson said. Technology issues in the beginning of the mandate could have contributed to some leaves, too, she said.
“I'm working very closely with those supervisors and administrators of those particular programs to make sure we push out as much assistance as we can,” she said. “Particularly with school lunch, we worked very closely with union leaders and supervisors there to make sure everyone understands the protocols.”
The president of Teamsters Local 677, which represents the Danbury school lunch staff, could not be reached for comment.
Teachers have been placed on leave seven times.
NEA Danbury, the teachers’ union, negotiated with the district to allow its members to use paid sick days if testing centers don’t provide results in a timely fashion, rather than being placed on unpaid leave, said Erin Daly, president of the union. She was unaware of whether other unions reached similar agreements.
“That was a huge issue and that made a lot more folks feel not stressed out with the mandate,” said Daly, a third-grade teacher. “It didn’t make things perfect, but it did take a little bit of the edge off.”
The local and state teachers’ union has encouraged members to get their COVID shots, she said. But the union has supported those who have chosen not to get vaccinated too, Daly said.
“Our mission was to make sure they got treated as fairly as possible and they didn't have as many inconveniences as possible,” she said. “We were trying to avoid inconvenient interruptions of work for them.”
It’s been inconvenient for some teachers to use the state testing sites, while those who want saliva tests, rather than a nasal swab, have had limited location options, Daly said.
The mandate went into effect on Sept. 27. In the first week or two, as staff got used to the new protocols, Danbury offered employees a “grace period” to employees who showed the receipt of their test but didn’t have their results, Thompson said.
Staff members were initially required to turn in results by 4 p.m. Tuesdays from a test taken in the last 72 hours. But employees may now choose to turn test results in on Monday or Tuesday, allowing them to test on Saturdays if they submit results on Mondays, Thompson said. This made it easier for employees who wanted saliva tests.
“We really tried to help people, to find a way that worked for them,” Thompson said.
Tutors have been placed on leave nine times; paraeducators were next with eight times; special education staff had four; and sites and facilities employees saw two. One school readiness staff member was placed on leave.
Most schools — with the exception of Morris Street Elementary School, Park Avenue Elementary School, Shelter Rock Elementary School, South Street Elementary School, Westside Middle School Academy and the Alternative Center for Excellence — had staff members placed on leave.
Danbury High School, the largest school in the district, had the most with 32. King Street Intermediate School followed with 27.
Five staff members were put on leave during the week of Oct. 4 — the
first week for which the district provided data. That’s tied for the lowest weekly number with the week of Nov. 15 — the latest week for which the district provided data. The median number of absences each week was 22.
The weeks of Oct. 18 and Nov. 1 are tied for the most leaves of absence with 25.
Effect of absences
The day with the most leaves of absence was Wednesday, Oct. 20, when 18 staff members were told to stay home. This included five extended learning employees, three school lunch staffers, two teachers, two sites and facilities employees, two tutors, two paraeducators, one special education employee and one school readiness staffer.
Wednesday is the most common day for staff to be out on leave.
These absences “come at a cost” because the district has struggled to find substitutes, Thompson said.
But absences have been an overall problem, not simply because of the mandate, Daly said.
“Whenever anyone is out, it makes the workload twice as much for our remaining teachers who have to cover for those students and those classes,” she said.
Danbury has retained Kelly Services, a staffing company, to provide substitute teachers, paraeducators and clerical staff for the district, Thompson said. The goal is for the company to start no later than Jan. 3, she said.
“We’re hoping with their more muscular recruitment that they’re going to help to cover that sub pool,” she said.
Daly is optimistic, too.
“I’m hopeful that this will be a productive move for the district because I think that using a service will alleviate some of the man power issues that the district has struggled with,” she said.