CONWAY — The Conway School Board accepted staff resignations due to the COVID-19 pandemic Monday night — but also had to accept one from a new hire who was unable to find affordable housing.
The housing problem is one that Superintendent Kevin Richard fears will only get worse as Airbnb properties are phasing rental properties out.
"We had one who was a new staff member who could not find housing up here,” Richard explained under media comments on Monday. “It was a halftime position and a young person. We did our darndest and reached out. But that was definitely a factor and has been a factor, I would say, for new teachers who are single-income trying to live up here."
He added: “They just can't find housing. And that's really is tough. As you know, the housing market right now, there's nothing that's staying on the market, and these folks can't afford $200,000 mortgages or even $1,500 a month to live in a place.”
School board members Bill Aughton, Courtney Burke, Dr. Michelle Capozzoli, Randy Davison, Joe Lentini, Joe Mosca and Jessica Whitelaw approved the resignations of five people and requests from two people for child-care leave.
“I believe both the child-care leaves were related to somewhat to the COVID-19 piece,” Richard said.
Sarah Frankel, a science teacher at Kennett Middle School, and Brenda Harris, a half-time special education teacher at Kennett High, were granted child-care leave for the entire 2020-21 school year.
The board also accepted the resignation of Meghan Ferris, who would have been a half-time instrumental music teacher at Kennett High. She was hired by the board on July 27 but could not find housing she could afford.
However, the board voted 4-2-1 against accepting the resignation of Jeffrey Millett, with Aughton and Whitelaw in the minority and Burke abstained.
There was quite a discussion over Millett, a one-to-one aide at Pine Tree School, who asked the board for a waiver on the payback insurance premiums of July and August.
The current Conway Education Support Personnel agreement states: “‘In the event a unit member signs a contract to return for the next year and resigns prior to Sept. 15, the unit member will be required to reimburse the district for the full amount of the health and dental benefits paid by the district for the months of July and August for the unit member’s health and dental insurance.”
Millett, who has been employed since Aug. 29, 2016, was seeking to resign due to COVID concerns, according to the board. He would be required to payback insurance premiums totaling $5,009.98 ($2,504.99 per month). However, if he waits until Sept. 15 and then resigns, he would not be responsible for the July and August premiums.
“It seems to me to make sense that let's give the administration the ability to advertise and to recruit for that position, but that's just my opinion,” Lentini said.
Richard was asked about before-school resignations.
“During a typical summertime, what you don't want to do is have somebody resign in August or even Sept. 1,” he said, “because what you've done is the Conway School District has paid their portion the 80 percent of whatever premium that it is. So it's one of those deals that maybe if you didn't have that language in, somebody may not resign even though they knew they would.
“I think this is a different situation with COVID-19. Obviously, it would require a sidebar agreement, because you folks would be in violation of the contract. CESP has said that they would agree to that, and they voice their agreement to that.”
Whitelaw said Millett is a personal friend of hers and that he was “very sympathetic to the whole situation,” and hopeful the administration would be able to hire and replace him by giving him the exemption.”
“To me, it’s setting a precedent that we don’t want to set,” Mosca said.
“I think if we were going back fully remote, we might see this person still here,” Richard said.
Whitelaw said Millett's children are going to continue doing remote education and that means he needs to be home with them.
“And if he had known before he signed the contract, he wouldn't have obviously signed the contract,” she said.
“So his option is, if we don't accept the resignation, he just hangs on to the 15th (of September) and then resign and we wind up paying,” Lentini said.
“I would expect that to be true,” Richard replied, adding, “His circumstances are unique to everybody else who has resigned.”
“It just seems like a lot of money to be paid back in his position,” Aughton said. “If we could help him avoid that without setting too firm a precedent, I would be in favor of that.”
The board did accept the resignation of Mikayla Cerney, who had been an administrative assistant at Eagle Academy since August 2018.
The board also accepted the resignation of longtime educator Penny Merrill, who taught at Pine Tree School for 38 years and retired in 2016 but returned to the district as a part-time Title I aide in January.
The resignation of Kayleigh Lepage, the junior varsity field hockey coach for the past two years, was also accepted, but she will remain on in the program as a volunteer.
The board also accepted the resignation of Kristina Beadle, a teacher in the district who accepted a position as grade 2/3 teacher at Josiah Bartlett Elementary School.
Earlier this month, three longtime educators retired due to COVID 19, including Amelia “Jimi” Emery, the school’s technology coordinator; Val Ford, a second- and third-grade teacher; and June McLeavey, the art teacher, effective immediately.
Ford taught at JBES for 25½ years; McLeavey, 24 years; and Emery, who as a child attended the school, 26 years.
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