MONROE — The School District of Monroe Board of Education approved changes for support staff dependent on how students are learning during its regular meeting Sept. 14. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Monroe is currently in a hybrid Plan B model, where on opposite weeks half of the student body attends school for a week at a time while the other half learns remotely. The district updates families two weeks in advance in how learning will proceed for planning purposes. However, as of this week, Monroe High School had positive cases in both staff and students and went to Plan C, which is online learning. 

In Plan B, the board unanimously approved all support staff will be retained at their regular hours. Some support staff have already been reassigned to other roles due to school building and student body changes. 

However, District Administrator Rick Waski said if the district were to transition to Plan C, where all students would learn online, some tasks would need to be reassigned. 

In that model, the board agreed to pay support staff for the hours they work. Business Administrator Ron Olson said no matter how many hours that equates to, all benefits will remain in place and the deductions for benefits will remain at their regular levels for the 2020-21 school year (until June 30). 

Some support staff could be temporarily reassigned to other positions that need to be filled. However, any support staff could choose a voluntary unpaid leave of absence in which they maintain their employment status for the 2021-22 school year starting in July. 

Any support staff not choosing voluntary unpaid leave of absence that refuses the assignment offered to them will be issued a layoff notice without recall rights and will sever employment with the district. They would be allowed to reapply and could be considered for future positions. 

Waski told the board he felt most of the staff members would accept the reassignments, but there are some cases where layoffs would be a factor. 

Waski said at the Aug. 24 board meeting that in the hybrid Plan B, there would be about six people left without full time hours. If the school went to Plan C, there would be about 15 support staff members not meeting full time hours. 

However, letters were issued to all 136 support staff members because the district is required to give 30 days notice prior to any reduction of hours. It’s not clear yet exactly how many employees will be impacted. 

“We will do all we can to minimize the impact of this to our employees,” Waski said in an email to the Times. “This is simply a procedural process that allows us to make changes to job duties and hours if needed for budgetary reasons.”