The Los Rios Community College District will be giving its employees more options for work hours heading into the spring 2021 semester. With classes fully online next semester due to the ongoing pandemic, certain staff members will have more options on when they’ll work during the week.

These certain employees are known as “classified staff” and will be able to benefit from these modified schedules next semester. The group includes certain employees at American River College, according to Jacob Knapp, general council member with the LRCCD.

According to Knapp, these modified schedules are meant to help Los Rios employees have a more manageable work week during the pandemic by being able to work on certain days, but still getting their required 40 hours each week.

“A standard schedule in most places is a 40-hour work week working nine to five everyday, but an alternate schedule gives an employee an opportunity to complete their hours that’s more flexible to them,” Knapp said. “Instead of that usual work schedule, they could work four days a week with a 10 hour schedule and get three days off during the week instead of two—we’re trying to be as flexible as we can to our employees to help them during this pandemic.”

Not everyone is able to apply for these benefits however, as according to Knapp, the employees within Los Rios’s colleges who fall under that classified staff group are the only ones who can request for the changes in their work schedules.

“We have several thousand people working for the district, but the employees who fall under the classified staff category are on-campus police officers, custodians, professor assistants, etc.” Knapp said. “Those are the employees who can apply for these modified schedules.”

Offering these alternative schedules isn’t something new for Los Rios as colleges like ARC would have these options available usually during the summer semesters, according to Knapp. However, it’s because of the pandemic they’re now offering these opportunities in the upcoming spring semester.

“The district has had these modified schedules during the summer semesters in the past, but during the pandemic we extended the alternate schedule options to employees during this time to give them more flexibility,” Knapp said. “We understand our employees may be dealing with challenges at home during this time such as homeschooling their children or taking care of elderly family members who are ill.”

According to Knapp, for an employee to apply for these benefits, they would first need to talk to their supervisor, whoever that may be depending on their job title, and would then need to be approved before they can work under these new conditions.

“The staff member at ARC would need to go to their supervisor and request to work with an alternate schedule,” Knapp said. “Assuming they can still do all their work with these modified hours, they can get approved for the alternative schedule and start working with their new hours.”