We are creating a petition to have the board approve an additional 10 days of paid leave for employees who are lab confirmed positive or medically documented positive for COVID and require mandatory quarantining. This means that individuals have documentation from a medical professional in order to qualify for the 10 days. These days are in addition to the employees' existing leave bank and would only be for employees who are positive with COVID. These additional days would allow people to take care of their own health without risking returning to campus too early for financial reasons or lack of days. It also allows employees to use their personal days for personal needs seeing as how many of the effects of COVID are long term and require ongoing healthcare appointments. This modification is needed because of the loss of federal days that were being offered last year to assist in the event of someone being in quarantine and being unable to perform professional duties in the district. Currently, Royal ISD does not having a mask mandate and the age of our students prevents them from securing a vaccine. The aforementioned items plus the current rise of COVID cases in our area put our students and staff at a greater risk.