Athens City Schools approves paid quarantine leave for district unions

The Athens City Schools Board of Education last week approved a memorandum of understanding with three of the district’s unions to allow employees and teachers up to 10 days of paid COVID-19 quarantine leave through April.

Members of the Athens Education Association, AFSCME 1846 and AFSCME 1846A unions are all eligible for the time off, allowing them to receive pay while saving accrued sick days.

The board also approved the purchase of two 71-passenger school buses from Truck Sales & Services, Inc. totaling nearly $185,000 in cost.

“Some folks will question, you know, ‘if we haven’t been driving the buses much, why would we replace two this year?’ Just a reminder that we still have 24 regular routes, so if we’re only buying two buses a year, they’re on a regular route for 12 years minimum and then we still continue to use them as spares,” Superintendent Tom Gibbs said.