COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes but there’s still work to do
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Walworth County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution declaring a state of emergency in Walworth County on March 19 designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the county. The county has also been continuing to pay Lakeland School teachers and hourly staff during the crisis.
County Administrator Mark Luberda presented the resolution to the board. He said school teachers and staff may be treated differently from other county employees because the school is a different organization. He said other county schools have been acting in a unified manner and Lakeland should be thought of more as a school than a county operation.
“I value consistency in operations and a uniform application across employees as a very useful thing but I’m recognizing the school is a little bit different beast in this regard,” he said.
Luberda said that difference was made clear according to separate declarations made by Governor Tony Evers regarding schools during the crisis.
The school employs full-time teachers whose pay and benefits will not be impacted by the crisis. The school also has 42 hourly employees – such as special education aids and translators – whose status was not as clear.
On March 19, Luberda said he had not yet anticipated continuing to pay hourly workers when there was no work. He suggested some of those employees could be reassigned to other roles and continue to be paid.
A few days after the meeting, Luberda said some Lakeland School hourly employees had been reassigned to the Walworth County Government Center and the Sheriff’s Department to help control access.
He said the Government Center now has a Citizen Support Center at its main entrance. People coming in to do business at the building are met in the spacious entry way and seated six to eight feet apart where they can safely wait until their needs are met, if possible.
Luberda said other hourly workers are participating in the school’s virtual school or online training opportunities. He said all hourly employees are working and being paid and will continue to do so through at least April 3.
He said it’s important to have work for the to hourly employees rather than paying them not to work.
Even though the money to pay the hourly employees is already in the county budget, Luberda said there was a balance the county has to consider between paying the workers and being accountable to taxpayers who might not approve of paying employees who are not working. That concern is especially fitting in a time when many private sector employees are not working and not being paid if that’s the case.
“We have been trying to approach it methodically in a thoughtful way,” Luberda said.
Luberda said the county was still drafting a policy for how a new federal law will impact county employees, including Lakeland School employees. He said the law took effect on April 1 and expands many benefits to people impacted by COVID-19. Lakeland School hourly workers who no longer have work to do and qualify for the benefits can apply.
Director of Special Education Tracy Moate said she did not believe applying for those benefits would be necessary. She said any hourly employee worried they would not get paid during the crisis was being premature.
Moate said she believes there will be plenty of work for hourly workers to do even after April 3.
“I am absolutely confident there will still be work to do,” she said. “We will need all hands on deck for our virtual learning.”
Moate said the school has transitioned to a virtual learning environment with 148 of the school’s 182 students participating. She said she was very pleased with that participation rate. Moate said hourly workers have been and will continue to aid teachers online with students that need the support.
“We worked very hard to develop plans to deliver services to our students, which is the primary focus of our school,” Moate said.
“At no time was I worried we were not going to be able to reach our families. That is the most important thing right now,” she added.
Moate said the first sign the county was committed to paying hourly workers was the March 20 payday when all hourly employees were paid even though the students had not been in school for over a week by that time.
She said some hourly employees have been reassigned to other roles, some are receiving professional development opportunities they otherwise would not have time to partake in, while many are working with students virtually.
Moate said the crisis has been difficult for everyone as the situation has been very fluid.
“What we think we know today is different tomorrow. We have a great plan for everyone going forward and we will continue to evolve with this process,” she said.
