|
Years of Membership Sick Leave Pool Eligibility
|
|
1 to 2 Years
|
3 to 4 Years
|
5 or More Years
|
|
Days of Extended Illness
|
10
|
20
|
30
|
|
The benefit is only available to members. It is not used for illnesses involving the immediate family.
|
Professional/Certified staff may use up to eight weeks paid leave for childbirth and adoption. Once the employee’s accrued leave balances of sick, personal, and vacation are exhausted, the employee will be paid according to years of membership in the Emergency Sick Leave Pool. If there are any remaining days of the eight week period after the birth of the child, those days will be unpaid leave.
How to calculate eight weeks of district paid leave:
The eight-week period is calculated by counting full 7-day consecutive weeks including any holidays and non-work days.
Example: The child is born on a Monday. Count eight Mondays beginning with the date of birth. If an employee chooses to extend their leave beyond the eight weeks, the ninth Monday will begin the period of unpaid leave.
FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE (FMLA)
See Policies GBBDA: Family and Medical Leave
The district’s practice is that, Professional and Certified staff are considered eligible employees as defined by FMLA as of the first day of employment.
All eligible employees are entitled to leave for a period not to exceed 12 workweeks (60 work days) per leave year of July 1st through June 30th.
How to calculate FMLA of district paid leave:
The 12 work weeks/60 workdays is calculated by counting the number of workdays beginning with the first workday the employee is absent from work as part of their FMLA leave for the current FMLA period.
Example: FMLA protected leave days will be calculated by counting 60 scheduled workdays beginning with the first day of the employee’s absence.
Workdays: is defined as days the employee is scheduled to work such as student attendance days, Professional Development, and teacher workdays. Workdays would not include days the employee is not scheduled to work such as weekends, holidays, fall, winter, spring break, and summer. Days that the district closes as a result of snow or other unforeseen circumstance are not counted as a scheduled workday.
Additional Leave beyond 12 workweeks/60 workdays:
Additional leave time requested beyond the 12 workweeks/60 workdays would begin on workday 61. The employee would request approval of the additional leave in writing to the superintendent. The additional leave time would be outside of the FMLA coverage period. As a result, the employee’s district paid benefits (health, dental, vision, and life insurance) would end on the last day of the month in which the 60th workday occurred. The employee may continue insurance coverage under COBRA for themselves and their enrolled dependents at the employee’s expense. District paid benefits will resume the first day the employee returns from the extended leave period.
Retirement Service Credit:
Any extended unpaid leave during a school year could affect service credit in the retirement system resulting in less than a full year of service earned. The employee should contact PSRS/PEERS for information and options for purchasing any shortage in-service credit in the school year the extended leave was taken.
Maternity Leave Weeks 1-8: Employees may use up to eight weeks of accrued paid leave for maternity leave. If the employee has less than eight weeks of accrued paid leave available, the employee's salary will be docked for the additional days. Depending on the number of days the employee is on unpaid sick leave, the employee could earn less than a full year of retirement service credit with PSRS.
Example: Jane had a child and elected to take 8 weeks of maternity leave. She had accrued only 4 weeks of paid leave and was on unpaid leave for 4 weeks. Since Jane did not receive her salary during the 4 weeks of unpaid leave she also will not earn a full year of service credit with PSRS. Jane may be eligible to purchase the service credit for the time she was on unpaid sick leave by paying her member contribution (14.5%) on the unpaid salary and the district will pay contributions using the same calculations.
Please contact the Payroll Office at the Orchard Farm Administration Office for the estimated cost.
See Leave-Based Purchases Leave-Based Purchases for full details. Eligibility to purchase service time under the Leave-Based Purchase option is only available for a limited time and does expire.
Maternity Leave Weeks 9-12: If an employee chooses to remain out on unpaid leave beyond the 8 weeks they are not eligible to use accrued leave time, the additional time will be unpaid sick leave. Since this additional time of absence is not a period of eligible paid leave, purchasing the service credit for this additional four weeks would be calculated using the Basic Purchase Cost Calculation which uses the full (employee and employer combined) contribution rate (29%).
Please contact the PSRS office for additional detail and estimated costs.
See Formula-Based Purchases for full details.
Special Note for Instructional Employees (Policy GBBDA Family Medical Leave)
If intermittent leave or reduced-schedule leave equals more than 20 percent of instructional time, the district may require instructional employees who take such leave due to medical reasons to take block leave or to find an alternative placement for the period of planned medical treatment. When an instructional employee on FMLA leave is scheduled to return close to the end of a school term, the district may elect to use a special rule to prolong the employee's leave until the beginning of the next school term, thus extending the leave beyond the period where an FMLA-qualifying reason exists. In such an instance, the prolonged leave time is unpaid and is not charged against the employee's annual FMLA entitlement. In cases where the special rules for instructional employees apply, the superintendent may apply those special rules or the general FMLA rules as best serves the interest of the district.