Name of District: Durant Public School District	Policy Number                                                                                                GBRI
Name of Policy: Absence from Duty	Adopted:                                                                                                       November 2009

 

 

 

1.                  LICENSED EMPLOYEE

 

The term licensed employee means any employee of a public school district required to hold a valid license by the Commission on Teacher and Administrator Education, Certification and Licensure and Development.  §37-7-307

 

2.                  SICK LEAVE ALLOWANCE

 

The Board of Trustees of the Durant Public School District shall establish by rules and regulations a policy of sick leave with pay for licensed employees and teacher assistants employed in the school district, and such policy shall include the following minimum provisions for sick emergency leave with pay:

 

a.         Each licensed employee and teacher assistant, at the beginning of each school year, shall be credited with a minimum sick leave allowance, with pay, of seven (7) days for absences caused by illness or physical disability of the employee during that school year.

 

b.         Any unused portion of the total sick leave allowance shall be carried over to the next school year and credited to such licensed employee and teacher assistant if the licensed employee or teacher assistant remains employed in the same school district.  In the event any public school licensed employee or teacher assistant transfers from one public school district in Mississippi to another, any unused portion of the total sick leave allowance credited to such licensed employee or teacher assistant shall be credited to such licensed employee or teacher assistant in the computation of unused leave for retirement purposes under Section 25‑11‑109, Mississippi Code of 1972.  Accumulation of sick leave allowed in the school district shall be unlimited.

 

3.                  No deduction from the pay of such licensed employee or teacher assistant may be made because of absence of such licensed employee or teacher assistant caused by illness or physical disability of the licensed employee or teacher assistant until after all sick leave allowance credited to such licensed employee or teacher assistant has been used.

 

d.         For the first ten (10) days of absence of the licensed employee because of illness or physical disability, in any school year, in excess of the sick leave allowance credited to such licensed employee, there may be deducted from the pay of such licensed employee the established substitute amount of licensed employee compensation paid in that local school district, necessitated because of the absence of the licensed employee as a result of illness or physical disability.  Thereafter, the regular pay of such absent licensed employee may be suspended and withheld in its entirety for any period of absence because of illness or physical disability during that school year.

 

3.                  PERSONAL LEAVE ALLOWANCE

 

Beginning with the school year 1983-84, each licensed employee at the beginning of each school year shall be credited with a minimum personal leave allowance, with pay, of two (2) days for absences caused by personal reasons during that school year.  Such personal leave shall not be taken on the first day of the school term, the last day of the school term, on a day previous to a holiday or a day after a holiday, unless on such days an immediate family member of the employee is being deployed for military service.  Personal leave may be used for professional purposes, including absences caused by attendance of such licensed employee at a seminar, class, training program, professional association or other functions designed for educators.  No deduction from the pay of such employee may be made because of absence of such licensed employee caused by personal reasons until after all personal leave allowance credited to such employee has been used.  However, the superintendent of a school district, in his discretion, may allow a licensed employee personal leave in addition to any minimum personal leave allowance, under the condition that there shall be deducted from the salary of such licensed employee the actual amount of any compensation paid to any person as a substitute, necessitated because of the absence of the licensed employee.  Any unused portion of the total personal leave allowance up to five (5) days shall be carried over to the next school year and credited to such licensed employee if the licensed employee remains employed in the school district.

 

4.                  PROFESSIONAL LEAVE ALLOWANCE

 

Beginning with the school year 1992-93, each licensed employee shall be credited with a professional leave allowance, with pay, for each day of absence caused by reason of such employee's statutorily required membership and attendance at a regular or special meeting held within the State of Mississippi of the State Board of Education, the Commission on Teacher and Administrator Education, Certification and Licensure and Development, the Commission on School Accreditation, the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television and the meetings of the state textbook rating committees or other meetings authorized by local school board policy.

 

5.                  RETIREMENT

 

Upon retirement from employment, each licensed and nonlicensed employee shall be paid for not more than thirty (30) days of unused accumulated leave earned while employed by the school district in which the employee is last employed.  Such payment for licensed employees shall be made by the school district at a rate equal to the amount paid to substitute teachers and for nonlicensed employees, the payment shall be made by the school district at a rate equal to the federal minimum wage.  The payment shall be treated in the same manner for retirement purposes as a lump sum payment for personal leave as provided in Section 25-11-103 (e).  Any remaining lawfully credited unused leave, for which payment has not been made, shall be certified to the Public Employees' Retirement System in the same manner and subject to the same limitations as otherwise provided by law for unused leave.  No payment for unused accumulated leave may be made to either a licensed or nonlicensed employee at termination or separation from service for any purpose other than for the purpose of retirement.

 

6.                  RULES AND REGULATIONS

 

The Board of Trustees of the Durant Public School District hereby adopts the following rules.

 

a.         Absent employees shall furnish the certificate of a physician or dentist or other medical practitioner as to the illness of the absent employee, where the absence is for four (4) or more consecutive school days, or for two (2) consecutive school days immediately preceding or following a nonschool day;

 

b.         An employee shall receive leave without pay and an entry into the employee’s personnel file, and/or other appropriate penalties, for any materially false statement by the employee as to the cause of an absence;

 

c.         An employee shall receive leave without pay, if the absence of the employee is caused by optional dental or medical treatment or surgery which could, without medical risk, have been provided, furnished or performed at a time when school was not in session;

 

d.         An employee shall receive leave without pay, if the employee after having been denied leave is absent on the day of the requested leave.

 

7.                  PAYMENT OF SUBSTITUTE EMPLOYEES

 

            The Board of Trustees of the Durant Public School District adopts the following payment             scales for substitute employees

 

            $58.00 per day – Regular Subs

            $68.00 per day – Substitutes with college degree

            $78.00 per day – Substitutes with MDE certification

 

8.         NONLICENSED AND HOURLY PAID SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

 

The Board of Trustees of the Durant Public School District may further adopt rules and regulations which will reasonably implement such leave policies for all other nonlicensed and hourly paid school employees as the Board deems appropriate.

 

9.                  VACATION AND PERSONAL LEAVE

 

12 month employees shall receive 10 vacation days per year.  Vacation days shall not accrue.

 

10.              DEFINITIONS

 

a.         For the purposes of this subsection, the following words and phrases shall have the meaning ascribed in this paragraph unless the context requires otherwise:

 

                                    1.         "Catastrophic injury or illness" means a life‑threatening injury or illness of an employee or a member of an employee's immediate family that totally incapacitates the employee from work, as verified by a licensed physician, and forces the employee to exhaust all leave time earned by that employee, resulting in the loss of compensation from the state for the employee.  Conditions that are short‑term in nature, including, but not limited to, common illnesses such as influenza and the measles, and common injuries, are not catastrophic.  Chronic illnesses or injuries, such as cancer or major surgery, that result in intermittent absences from work and that are long‑term in nature and require long recuperation periods may be considered catastrophic.

 

2.                  “Immediate family” means spouse, parent, stepparent, sibling, child or stepchild.

 

b.                  Any school district employee may donate a portion of his or her unused accumulated personal leave or sick leave to another employee of the same or another school district who is suffering from a catastrophic injury or illness or who has a member of his or her immediate family suffering from a catastrophic injury or illness, in accordance with the following:

 

1.                  The employee donating the leave (the donor employee) shall designate the employee who is to receive the leave (the recipient employee) and the amount of unused accumulated personal leave and sick leave that is to be donated, and shall notify the school district superintendent or his designee of his or her designation.

 

2.                  The maximum amount of unused accumulated personal leave that an employee may donate to any other employee may not exceed a number of days that would leave the donor employee with fewer than seven (7) days of personal leave remaining, and the maximum amount of unused accumulated sick leave that an employee may donate to any other employee may not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the unused accumulated sick leave of the donor employee.

 

3.                  An employee must have exhausted all of his or her available leave and sick leave before he or she will be eligible to receive any leave donated by another employee.  Eligibility for donated leave shall be based upon review and approval by the donor employee’s supervisor.

 

4.                  Before an employee may receive donated leave, he or she must provide the school district superintendent or his designee with a physician’s statement that states the beginning date of the catastrophic injury or illness, a description of the injury or illness, and a prognosis for recovery and the anticipated date that the recipient employee will be able to return to work.

 

5.                  If the total amount of leave that is donated to any employee is not used by the recipient employee, the whole days of donated leave shall be returned to the donor employees on a pro rata basis, based on the ratio of the number of days of leave donated by each donor employee to the total number of days of leave donated by all donor employees.

 

6.                  Donated leave shall not be used in lieu of disability retirement. 

§37-7-307