Hall County teachers who contract COVID-19 - or who have to quarantine because of COVID exposure - will be eligible for paid sick leave following a vote by the Hall County School Board Monday night.
The unanimous vote allows up to 10 days of paid sick leave for employees under funding from the federal CARES Act.
District Superintendent Will Schofield cautioned that the approval of paid sick leave does not mean that every employee is entitled to an additional 10 days of sick leave; employees are to use the paid leave only for COVID-related absences and only when needed. Schofield also noted that the funding will be beneficial especially to younger teachers who have not accrued sick leave.
There was no mention of how much of Hall County's CARES funding might be needed to fund requested COVID sick leave.
Schofield also told board members employees have been asking a lot of questions about a bonus mentioned in Gov. Brian Kemp's state-of-the-state address last week.
"There was a 15-second segment where he mentioned $1,000 bonuses for school-level people," Schofield said. "The fact of the matter is we've seen no details, we don't know who's included, we are assuming that local costs are not included."
Schofield said he is estimating the local contribution will be about 25% on top of whatever the state provides.
"[I do] applaud the fact that the state says educators deserve a bonus - they do deserve a bonus [ and] I'm thankful that he did that - but when people say exactly what is that going to look like in Hall County, we don't have enough information to be able to say yet," Schofield said.
