As part of their COVID-19 pandemic response and emergency suspension of policy, the Perry School Board had a choice to make regarding their non-salaried employees, and Superintendent Clark Wicks feels the Board made the compassionate decision.

Wicks says the options were to either pay the hourly employees an average of their wages through the school’s closure until April 30th, or to furlough them in order to save money. The Board chose the former option, and Wicks points out that they went a step further to include the remainder of the school year should the closure extend through May. “It will be a strain in some areas with the budget, but this isn’t the time to start cutting things and holding hourly people hostage. So it was really a great moment, I think, for the people in Perry, and it’s going to help the City of Perry. So we’ll have lower anxiety, we’re going to have, I think, the confidence that we want to have these people taken care of. And we are taking care of (them), and it was a great, great move!”

Governor Kim Reynolds is expected to decide this week whether to order schools to shut down for the rest of the year due to coronavirus concerns. To learn more about this and other Perry School District topics, click the link below to listen to the recent Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Wicks.

https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2020/04/14/lets-talk-dallas-county-4-14-2020-clark-wicks/