COVID-19 emergency leave still open to R-VIII employees, Board decides

The federal law that provided COVID-19 emergency leave to schoolteachers may have expired but, in the Joplin School District, that option will remain open to public school employees.

The Joplin Board of Education made the decision to offer up to 10 days of COVID emergency leave to its workers through the last day of June.

Board members took the action at a special meeting Wednesday.

In terms of use of the leave, the numbers vary in the district. . Of nearly 12 hundred employees, 978 have used any of the leave at all. About 200 have used all or part of their leave days.

The vote will not add more days for the 10 employees who have used all of their emergency leave days.