Joining several districts across the Commonwealth Thursday night, the Trigg County Board of Education unanimously approved both the Kentucky General Assembly’s $100 bonus to teachers and active substitute employees retroactive to February 2020 through the 2021-22 school year, as well as the 20 “COVID-19 days” that can be used at superintendent discretion.
The two measures were key clauses in Senate Bill No. 1, which denied both the Governor’s office and the Kentucky Department of Education the ability to mandate masks inside of schools, but instead ruled districts could make such decisions — while offering COVID-19 buffer days for NTI, as well as inoculation incentives.
These 20 “COVID-19 days” do expire by January 15, 2022, in what many legislators and the state’s medical leaders hope will be enough time for vaccinations to increase and the spread of the “Delta” variant to wane — while keeping kids in school.
Superintendent Bill Thorpe noted there would need to be a considerable drop in coverage, as in a sincere lack of teachers or substitutes, to warrant the use of a “COVID” day, as the district still has full use of 10 NTI days on top of this buffer.
The district’s attorney, Jack Lackey Jr., noted these 20 “COVID” days also have other state-ordered stipulations.
Thorpe also noted that the district has nearly filled up its allowance on taking substitute teachers with a high school diploma as their level of completed education, Director of Personnel and Student Services James Mangels adding that six such contracts were signed on Thursday alone.
The number of sick days unrelated to COVID having already been used by staff, Lackey followed, is “extensive” — on top of COVID absences.
This clearly leads to the use of more substitutes.
Board member Charlene Sheehan asked if the rate of sick leave was higher than in previous years, to which Lackey and Thorpe had clarification.
As of Thursday afternoon and according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard, there were 23 active cases on campus (eight in the high school), 106 quarantined students (58 in the primary school), and seven active staff cases (six in the primary school).
Thorpe said these numbers have been trending downward in the last few weeks.
In other news:
— The board unanimously approved Finance Officer Holly Greene’s FY 2022 running and working budget, which she called “the smallest working budget” she’ll ever have, with most current monies allocated to current and upcoming BG projects. In the general fund, an expected $7.42 million will carry forward, with $4.18 million unassigned and carrying forward.
— The board unanimously approved varied non-residential contracts with Barren County, Caldwell County, Calloway County, Christian County, Hopkins County, Lyon County, Marshall County, and Murray Independent, contingent on what happens with HB 563.
— The board unanimously approved a joint SBDM meeting at 6 p.m., October 28, and a LAVEC Data Workshop at 5 p.m., November 11.
