Schools
Administrators Won't Be Docked for Missing School During Blizzard
The District 202 board will pay staff who would not ordinarily get a snow day because the roads made it too dangerous to come to work.
The board has approved paying 12-month employees for the on Feb. 2 that dumped some 18 ½ inches of snow throughout the area.
District administrators and other 12-month employees are expected to come to school even when classes are canceled and buildings are closed due to weather.
However, school board President Stuart Bledsoe said that he didn’t want to put the health or safety of these employees in jeopardy by making them feel as though they had to come to work on Feb. 2 when roads were impassable throughout the area.
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Making the 12-month employees use vacation time because they were forced home on a snow day also did not seem fair, Bledsoe said.
“It was a safety issue,” he said. “At no time were those roads safe.”
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Classes were cancelled on Feb. 2 and 3.
Many administrators worked from home on Feb. 2 and returned to work on Feb. 3.
Administrators and non-union employees are salaried employees, and do not get to carry unused vacation time over to the next year.
Due to contractual requirements, year-round support staff employees would have incurred nearly $18,500 in overtime pay if they had to make up the snow day on another day when they were already working a full week, district officials said.
Paying for the snow day cost the district about $68,700 in salaries, which includes pay for 45 year-round administrators, 46 year-round non-union staff and 258 year-round members of the Plainfield Association of Support Staff.
