Students in Cullman County have the opportunity to attend school virtually if they are unsafe or uncomfortable returning to the classroom, but teachers will have more limited options for the coming year. 

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette said he expects some of the teachers in the system who are in the virus’ vulnerable age range to choose not to return to the classroom this year.

“I anticipate some people that have compromised immune systems may choose to retire,” he said in an interview with The Times earlier this week.

Barnette said the coming year is going to be very different from years past, and he understands that there will be some teachers who don’t want to take on that additional risk in the classroom.

“If they’re at the level in their career where they decide to retire and they don’t want to work with those circumstances, I understand that,” he said. “We’ll do our best to fill those positions as they come open.”

Some teachers may be able to teach in the system’s virtual academy, but there may not be enough students who enroll in the virtual academy to provide a position for teachers who would be unsafe with exposure to the virus.

“We don’t know what that option’s going to look like right now,” he said.

For teachers who aren’t eligible for retirement, Barnette said those who meet certain criteria under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act could be eligible for paid time off.

“If they meet one of those categories, they can take off for an extended amount of time, and then they also have FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act), so that if they have a family member that they need to take off to help, that would fall under that,” he said. “That’s about all the options we have right now.”

According the FFCRA, an employee can meet one of six criteria to qualify for paid sick time during the pandemic:

1. Is subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;

2. Has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine related to COVID-19;

3. Is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis;

4. Is caring for an individual subject to an order described in (1) or self-quarantine as described in (2);

5. Is caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed (or child care provider is unavailable) for reasons related to COVID-19; or

6. Is experiencing any other substantially-similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretaries of Labor and Treasury.

An employee can also qualify for expanded family leave if the employee is caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed (or child care provider is unavailable) for reasons related to COVID-19.

For reasons 1-4 and 6, a full-time employee is eligible for 80 hours of leave, and for reason 5, a full-time employee is eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave (two weeks of paid sick leave followed by up to 10 weeks of paid expanded family & medical leave) at 40 hours a week.

For leave reasons 1, 2 or 3, employees taking leave are entitled to pay at either their regular rate or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher, up to $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate (over a 2-week period).

For leave reasons 4 or 6, employees taking leave are entitled to pay at 2/3 their regular rate or 2/3 the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher, up to $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate (over a 2-week period).

For leave reason 5, employees taking leave are entitled to pay at 2/3 their regular rate or 2/3 the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher, up to $200 per day and $12,000 in the aggregate (over a 12-week period).

Barnette said safety for both students and faculty members is the number one priority for the system, and he is working with the rest of the county staff to make sure the proper precautions are in place to help make everyone as safe as possible from COVID-19.

“We’re going to do all we can to keep them healthy and keep them safe,” he said. “We do value our teachers, there’s no doubt.”

If teachers do begin testing positive for the virus and are forced to miss school for long periods of time, that means substitutes will be in high demand, and Barnette said the system has qualified substitutes who are capable of doing so.

“We’ve got some quality substitutes that have been substituting in our system for 20 years,” he said. “Every year we add more and more names to that list, and we hope that they’ll be dedicated and want to get in there and help us.”

Many of those experienced substitutes are also in the age range that is at the most risk from the virus, but Barnette said he believes many of the system’s substitutes will want to return to the classroom.

“I anticipate that there will be some of them not wanting to substitute because of the risk of getting that, but I really expect that most of them will continue to sub,” he said.

Cullman City Schools Superintendent Susan Patterson did not respond to inquiries seeking comment.