Mason City School Board approves pay for staff during canceled school days caused by COVID-19 emergency

MASON CITY — The Mason City School Board last night approved memorandums of understanding between the school district and the unions representing the district’s employees to continue receiving pay while classes are cancelled and to address making up cancelled days between March 16th and this week.

Board president Jodi Draper thanked her board colleagues for approving the modifications in each union’s collective bargaining agreement. “I think that’s very important for the families and for our teachers, our staff and paraprofessionals. We care about them. We know they’d rather be in class working with our students instead of at home. I want to commend the board for that.“

The board also discussed in a workshop session what the rest of the school year would look like in the district. Superintendent Dave Versteeg says since school has been cancelled until at least April 30th, the district has to decide on a plan to educate students by the end of this week. He says they hope to have a voluntary education plan in place in hopes of getting a credit-based plan in place by the start of May.   “We’re choosing the option of voluntary education at this point, with our  goal being by May 1st, we can be ready for some level of credit program at some grade levels when that time rolls around. We can change our plan anytime we’d like.”

Staff will be working this week with the intent of providing voluntary learning opportunities starting next Monday.