ROGERS -- The City Council unanimously approved on Tuesday an informal agreement between the city and the School District to allow off-duty paramedics to work as substitute nurses.
"We will just be substitute nursing, hoping to fill the gap," said Tom Jenkins, fire chief.
The covid-19 pandemic has created the potential for the School District to be faced with a situation in which it doesn't have an adequate number of nurses on staff at any given time, according to resolution documents.
"Until that's taken care of, we want to have their back," Jenkins said.
The School Board on Sept. 15 unanimously approved the proposal.
The district is almost fully staffed with nurses, according to district officials, and the agreement is meant to be a back-up plan for potential nurse absences.
The city has about 140 firefighters, about 70%-80% of whom are paramedics, according to Fire Department officials. Several have already expressed interest in working in schools, officials said.
Paramedics will be permitted to wear their city uniform when working for the district, and the district will provide all compensation for off-duty paramedics' work within schools, according to resolution documents.
The paramedic proposal is similar to the arrangement the district has with the city to provide school resource officers in certain school buildings.
In other news, the council collectively voted to approve a property tax rate of 2.4 mills on each dollar of assessed value of real and personal property for 2020 to be collected in 2021.
The tax rate is the same as 2019, said Casey Wilhelm, Rogers finance director.
"There is no tax increase for our citizens," said Betsy Reithemeyer, council member.
The council also unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the city to accept up to $229,000 in grant money from the Walton Family Foundation for Railyard Bike Park drainage improvements.
The grant is in addition to the money the foundation initially gave the city about a year ago to build the park, said Jim White, Parks and Recreation director.
White estimated the foundation originally committed a little more than $400,000 to help build the park.
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Rogers’ City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. Meetings can be attended through Zoom at https://us02web.zoo… .
Source: Rogers City Council
Mary Jordan can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAMaryJ.