Leave

Sick Leave

Topic: Sick Leave

Sick leave is provided to all full-time and half-time educators. Sick leave may be taken for personal illness, injury, or other physical disability (including pregnancy-related disability) and for illness in the immediate family. Immediate family is defined as employee’s spouse, mother, stepmother, father, stepfather, legal guardian, children, stepchildren, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, brother, stepbrother, brother-in-law, sister, stepsister, sister-in-law, aunts, great-aunts, uncles, great-uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, the parents/legal guardians and grandparents of the employee's spouse, an individual who is a permanent resident in the employee’s home, and any person for whom the employee has specific legal responsibility.

Insert applicable District Notification practices/protocols. Example: Teachers are required to immediately notify the personnel secretary when sick leave is needed. Whenever possible, they should also notify their immediate supervisor or building principal.

All teachers under contract shall receive on the first day of service each year a total of twelve (12) days sick leave unless they are employed after the beginning of the school term, in which case the sick leave shall be prorated accordingly. These twelve (12) days or less shall represent all the teacher's sick leave for that year, subject to the accumulation provisions hereof.

All unused days earned shall be added to the employee's sick leave reserve at the end of the fiscal year. An unlimited number of such sick days may be accumulated.

Rationale: It is crucial for leave to exist for educators to maintain the health of themselves and of their families and dependents. By categorizing who falls within the term, “family”, the District has additional protections against the misuse of sick leave. Allowing for leave to accumulate incentivizes educators to maintain a healthy household and use this leave only when absolutely necessary.

Personal Leave

There are a vast number of ways to construct a personal leave policy. You have been provided with some options below. Choose one option to take forward in negotiations knowing that you can always use other options as potential counter offers. At base value, SDEA recommends that your personal leave be a standalone leave provision separate from any PTO or sick leave provisions, that you have a high level of discretion on how to use the leave, and that there are either ample days available or a multi-year banking option for the leave.

Topic: Personal Leave

Option 1: Three (3) days of personal leave may be taken for personal reasons each year. Requests must be approved in advance by the Superintendent of schools or his/her designee. One (1) additional days of personal leave shall be granted each year to an employee in their 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th year of employment.

Option 2: There may be personal conditions or circumstances which may require an absence. The teacher shall receive three (3) personal leave days each contract year with full compensation.

Personal leave days not used may be accumulated although no more than five (5) unused days may be carried over to the new contract year. Teachers shall not have more than eight (8) personal leave days at the beginning of a contract year regardless of years of service. The teacher need not declare a reason for requesting personal leave.

Rationale:

From time to time, educators will need to use leave for reasons other than prescribed by other leave allotments in this contract. This provision provides leave to be used in a discretionary manner by our employees to address these needs. Periodic breaks in the year allow for better retention of our employees by reducing burnout. Additionally, this provision increases the attractiveness of our overall compensations packages, making our District more competitive with the districts around us.

Bereavement Leave

Topic: Bereavement

Employees covered under this contract shall be allowed five (5) days per occurrence for the death of a family member. Bereavement days are not required to be taken consecutively.

Immediate family is defined as employee’s spouse, mother, stepmother, father, stepfather, legal guardian, children, stepchildren, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, brother, stepbrother, brother-in-law, sister, stepsister, sister-in-law, aunts, great-aunts, uncles, great-uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, the parents/legal guardians and grandparents of the employee's spouse, an individual who is a permanent resident in the employee’s home, any person for whom the employee has specific legal responsibility, or unborn/miscarried child.

Up to two (2) days per contract year shall be allowed to attend funerals of close friends or relatives not covered by the above language.

Rationale:

When a death in the family occurs, our educators need time to grieve and celebrate the life of their loved one who has passed. Allowing bereavement leave lets our staff be better prepared to report back to work and meet the needs of our students.

Parental Leave

Topic: Parental Leave

Six (6) calendar weeks paid maternity/paternity leave for the birth/adoption of child(ren) through usage of the sick leave bank. The following provisions apply to that leave allotment.  

 • The leave commences on the birth date or adoption date of child(ren).

 • May allow earlier dates for adoption based on scheduled appointments related to the adoption.

 • The six (6) calendar weeks of paid leave are explicitly calendar days, not workdays. No extra pay will occur if days within the six (6) weeks are non-work days.

 • Following the six (6) calendar weeks of paid leave (through the sick leave bank), educators can use accrued sick leave, personal leave, or leave without pay for the remaining six (6) weeks of the twelve (12) week maximum time allowed under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

• A doctor’s note with date of birth or documents of adoption must be provided.

In order to sustain this benefit, returning educators may voluntarily contribute up to ten (10) days to the sick leave bank during a September 1-15 contribution window and fifteen (15) days during a March 1-15 contribution window of the current contract year by notifying the Business Manager. Non-returning educator can contribute the remaining days of their sick leave at the end of their current contract to the sick leave bank by notifying the Business Manager.

Rationale: 

Parental leave is an extremely important benefit to the staff of our School District. This proposal establishes a system of granting a window of paid parental leave through the use of unused sick days from other staff members who either still teach in the District or have left the District. With this set up, the benefit would not be possible to be realized if the sick bank exhausted its balance of days which creates an extremely low risk option for the District to provide an additional paid leave benefit. Additionally, this leave provision is a huge incentive for recruiting new educators and retaining those educators through the middle of their career.

Personal Time Off (PTO)

PTO will not be a fit for all Districts. If you do pursue a PTO transition, SDEA would suggest that you attempt to hold onto as many other leave options as possible outside of regularly needed leave such as bereavement, military, association, and jury duty leaves.

Topic: Personal Time Off (PTO)

At the beginning of each school year, a full-time educator will be credited with fifteen (15) day of personal time off (PTO) for the year. PTO operates as the leave balance for all leave needs that are not explicitly defined hereafter in the contract. Unused PTO can accumulate in the educator’s PTO bank without limit.

Upon retirement, resignation, or death, educators will be paid for one-half of their accumulated PTO leave.

The amount of PTO leave pay under this policy will be determined by the employee's per diem rate. Such payment will be made with the final check following the effective date of resignation or retirement.

Rationale:

A change to personal time off (PTO) from traditional leave policies allows for additional flexibility for the employee in how they use their available leave balance. This change also provides additional ease of processing leave requests and balances for the District.

Allowing for leave to accumulate incentivizes educators to maintain a healthy household and use this leave only when absolutely necessary. Paying out of leave to the employee at the end of their employment prevents the abuse of leave by an employee, especially as they near resignation or retirement. Additionally, this provision operates both as an incentive for attracting applicants and as a tool for retaining educators.