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By Karla Pomeroy
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Board mulls changes to volunteer, leave policies

 

August 30, 2017



WORLAND — The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees began review of two policies Monday night but no action was taken.

Chairman Don Bryant said the policies will come back to the board next month for first reading.

The first policy, regarding volunteers, sets up different tiers based on level of supervision.

Superintendent David Nicholas said there would be no changes with parental volunteers helping in the classroom with direct teacher supervision.

“When we move down to Tier 2 and Tier 3 we have more separation from the teacher and more responsibility to the volunteer. We just feel a responsibility when we finally get into Tier 3 that we’re doing background checks, which we pay for; just to make sure we are doing our due diligence to make sure the people in front of our kids are run through the checks,” Nicholas said.

He said under Tier 2, there is a more serious approach “administrators must ensure that these volunteers are never left with students outside the presence of an employee. Now when you get to [Tier] 3 we’re letting the volunteer be alone, they’ve had the background check, and that’s the difference.”

“We think this is just good business to layer this up a bit and be a little more thoughtful in what we’re doing. I will tell you that we have not had any trouble in the seven years I’ve been here, I just felt we needed to add some layers for our building principals,” Nicholas said.

He added that the policy has the approval from the policy committee and administrators.

Board member Anna Venable asked about student-teachers.

Nicholas noted that student-teachers are not currently included in district policy.

Business Manager Jack Stott said some schools require student-teachers to get substitute certification and in that case they would have background checks.

The second policy looks to change sick and annual leave time.

The current policy gives 11 sick leave days.

The current policy also states, “Employees shall be able to convert one sick day into annual leave during

each of the first three years of employment. These days shall not be cumulative. Beginning the fourth year of employment, employees shall be able to convert up to five of the current year’s sick days into annual leave. A maximum of five annual leave days will be allowed in any given year.”

Nicholas said, “I just think the responsibility for how to manage those days should be on the employee as well. It’s a little bit too big brother to me.”

Nicholas said he is proposing removing the language “Employees shall be able to convert one sick day into annual leave during each of the first three years of employment. These days shall not be cumulative,” leaving it up to the employees on whether they want to convert any sick leave days to annual leave. Employees would still be able to accumulate 90 days of sick leave and only five annual leave days.

District teacher Jacque Pike said if the board is looking at changing the policy, she would like them also to look at changing the definition of immediate family. She said the current definition leaves out siblings, grandchildren and foster parents. She said several years ago she was the sole caretaker of her sister and when she had to take time off she got docked seven days of unpaid leave.

The current board policy defines immediate family as “the staff member’s spouse, children, parents, and spouse’s parents.”

Alisa Martin said she would also like to see some bereavement leave.

The current board policy states, “Persons desiring leave for reasons such as funerals, weddings, children’s activities, community service, military leave, political activity, etc. will be expected to utilize the annual leave available under this policy.”

Board member Anna Venable wondered why the district differentiated between sick and annual leave with many companies going to just personal time off days.

The board will have the leave policy come before them for approval on first reading at the September meeting.

 
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