MASSENA — A Massena Central School Board of Education member queried fellow board members with his concerns about special accommodations for district employees during the COVID-19 crisis.
“Will COVID and accommodations be brought to the board? Are those something that’s brought to the board... because it’s a change in working conditions, much the same as sort of a change in the contract,” Kevin Perretta said during the board’s special session on Thursday.
Superintendent Patrick Brady said there could be different levels of accommodation, some of which might not be a concern to the board.
“There could be accommodations for wearing extra PPE (personal protective equipment), face shield or something like that, versus someone who’s going to be possibly having to work from home. So I’m not sure if you want all accommodation-types of things to come before the board or just those that are going to need accommodations from home,” he said.
“If someone wants a different PPE, that’s fine. But I think once we start changing locations or letting people work from home, I’d like to hear the details of that even if it’s executive session,” Mr. Perretta said.
Board President Patrick Bronchetti said he agreed with Mr. Perretta about the need for executive session to discuss specific individuals.
“I think if it’s just a face shield and mask, that’s fine. I’m OK with not having to review all those. Otherwise, if we’re moving people and they’re working from home, yes, executive session,” he said.
Board member Loren Fountaine cautioned that it could get into a legal situation.
“Be clear here, you don’t have a right to medical. If a person gives you medical, gives us medical information, we don’t have a right to look at that even in executive session,” he said.
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the medical issue is. I would just be telling you what the accommodation is,” Mr. Brady said.
Mr. Fountaine said, if officials provided an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, “I don’t understand why that would come to us. If we deny it, we’re looking at possible legal action. To me, this makes no sense.”
“I agree with Loren. I don’t think we need to review every single person’s accommodations. I think that’s kind of the administrator’s jobs to do that,” board member Amber Baines said.
“I do think we need to know some level of information on how things are going in the building, how education is being put forth in very general terms. But I don’t think we need to know maybe on an individual level what’s going on, but maybe the types of accommodations that are being made, in list form. And this is maybe after a month goes by. It doesn’t have to be an as it happens kind of thing,” board member Paul Haggett said.
Mr. Brady said it was “fair” to provide a list of the types of general accommodations that were being provided, “but we’re not going to get into the specifics. I would never be able to come to the board and talk about individual medical situations.”
"board" - Google News
August 17, 2020 at 04:39AM
https://ift.tt/2E4EqrU
Massena school board member asks about special accommodations for district employees amid pandemic - NNY360
"board" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KWL1EQ
https://ift.tt/2YrjQdq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Massena school board member asks about special accommodations for district employees amid pandemic - NNY360"
Post a Comment