The information contained on this site is intended to be a general guideline regarding the leave policies in Lammersville Unified School District. Additional information regarding leaves may be found in Statutes, Education Code, Board Policy, and the Agreement between LUSD and LTA.
Leave of Absence Types
Leave Guidelines under the LTA Agreement
Each Unit Member is entitled to use up to seven (7) days of his/her accumulated sick leave during each school year for personal reasons. Unit Members may use four (4) personal necessity leave days as a “No Tell Day”. “No Tell Day” cannot be used during the first week of school, the last week of school, before or after recognized holidays, parent conferences or during mandated testing.
No such leave shall be granted for purposes of personal convenience, for the extension of a holiday or vacation, for employment opportunities not associated with LUSD, or for matters which can be taken care of outside of working hours. The Superintendent or designee shall have final discretion as to whether a request reflects personal necessity.
Advance notice of one (1) school day is required for taking such leave in the case of personal business. The Unit Member shall notify the Site Administrator.
No such advance notification is required for cases of illness or death in the family, accident involving his/her person or property, or the person or property of a member of his/her family, appearance in court as a litigant, or as a witness under an official order. Unit Members are asked to notify the site as soon as possible when these events are known and an absence under this section will occur. Unit Members shall notify their immediate supervisor. If their supervisor is not available, they shall notify the District Superintendent’s office.
Full-time Unit Members shall be entitled to ten (10) days of sick leave each year and shall receive his/her rate of pay for days used. The ten (10) days shall be credited to each Unit Member on the first (1st) day of the contract year, and need not be accrued prior to use. Days not used in any year shall accumulate and be available for Unit Member’s use at any time.
Unit Members who are employed for less than full-time shall receive a number of sick leave days proportionate to the amount of his/her employment.
Upon exhaustion of annual sick leave credit, a Unit Member who continues to be absent for reasons of illness or accident shall be paid the difference between the Unit Member’s daily rate of pay and the District’s lowest substitute daily rate of pay. In no case shall the Unit Member receive less than fifty percent (50%) of his/her daily rate.
The Unit Member must first utilize all accumulated sick leave credit for the year in which the illness occurs, after which up to one hundred (100) days of differential sick leave may be used. The Unit Member may choose, but is not required, to use sick leave credit accumulated from prior years before beginning the use of differential sick leave.
Up to one hundred (100) days may be used each year. The used days need not be consecutive, nor for the same illness or accident. The one hundred (100) days begins with, or any time after, the first (1st) day of absence following the exhaustion of all regular sick leave granted for that school year.
Any regular Unit Member of the District may, at the discretion of the Board upon a doctor’s recommendation, be granted a leave of absence without pay for reasons of health, such leave to be specified for a period of not less than ninety (90) school days or more than one (1) year. Such leave may be extended in case of serious health conditions.
Provisions for notice of intention to return will be the same as regulations governing leaves for educational improvement except that such notices will include a written statement from the family physician certifying the Unit Member’s ability to return to full-time service.
A written request for such leave shall be made to the Superintendent or designee and submitted to the Board for their decision.
Leave of absence shall be granted to any certificated Unit Member for that period of time during which the Unit Member, in the judgment of her physician, is incapable of performing her duties due to pregnancy, miscarriage of childbirth, and recovery there from.
The Unit Member’s allowable sick leave may be used for such leave.
The duration of the leave of absence, including the date on which the leave shall commence and the date on which the Unit Member shall be capable of resuming duties, shall be determined by the Unit Member and the Unit Member’s physician. The Unit Member shall notify the District Superintendent or designee of the projected date on which the leave is expected to commence and the probable date on which such leave will terminate. Such notice to be given not later than thirty (30) days prior to the expected commencement date.
The Employer may request at any time that the Unit Member provide a written statement from her physician attesting to the actual duration of the Unit Member’s physical incapacity.
Nothing in this policy shall prohibit the Unit Member from applying for additional leave of absence without pay for maternal purposes related to childbirth and infant care.
During the period of incapacity, due to pregnancy, miscarriage of childbirth or recovery there from, insurance coverage shall be maintained by the District unless prohibited by law or insurance carrier. Under no circumstances will this coverage extend beyond one (1) year from the initial date of incapacity.
Leave of absence may be granted by the Governing Board to any certificated Unit Member for maternal or paternal purposes related to childbirth and infant care. Such leave shall be without pay and fringe benefits, and may be granted for any period up to one (1) year. Requests for such leave shall be made in writing to the District Superintendent at least thirty (30) days prior to the date of which the leave was requested to commence.
A regular Unit Member will be granted three (3) days leave of full pay in the event of death of a member of the immediate family or upon receiving official notice in time of war that a member of the immediate family is “missing in action.” This definition of “immediate family” shall include:
mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild, aunt, uncle, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece or nephew of the Unit Member or Unit Member’s spouse, mother-in-law, father-in-law, domestic partner, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, or sister of the Unit Member
any relative living in the immediate household of the Unit Member
Additional absence without loss of salary will be allowed for time required to travel to and from the place of funeral service. An additional three (3) days of leave shall be granted for travel that exceeds five hundred (500) miles one way. If the Unit Member requests, he/she shall be granted up to an additional six (6) days of leave in any one (1) year for bereavement purposes, which shall be charged to his/her accumulated sick leave.
Request for bereavement leave shall be made to the Superintendent or designee.
Allowable industrial accident or illness leaves shall be provided to the certificated Unit Members.
There shall be sixty (60) working days leave in any one (1) fiscal year for the same accident. When this accident or illness occurs at a time when the full sixty (60) days will overlap into the next fiscal year, the Unit Member will be entitled to only that amount of time remaining at the end of the fiscal year in which the injury occurred for the same illness.
Allowable leave shall not be accumulated from year-to-year.
Industrial accident or illness leave will commence on the first (1st) day of absence.
Payment for wages lost on any day shall not, when added to an award granted the Unit Member under worker’s compensation laws of this state, exceed the normal wage for the day.
Industrial Accident Leave will be reduced by one (1) day for each day of authorized absence regardless of a compensation award made under workmen’s compensation.
During all paid leaves of absence, whether Industrial Accident Leave as provided herein, sick leave, vacation, compensated time off or other available leave provided by law, the Unit Member shall endorse to the Employer wage loss benefit checks received under the worker’s compensation laws of this state. The Employer, in turn, shall issue the Unit Member appropriate warrants for payment of salary or wages and shall deduct normal retirement and other authorized contributions.
Any Unit Member who received benefits as a result of this section shall, during period of injury or illness, remain within the State of California unless the Employer authorizes travel outside the state. When all available leaves of absence, paid or unpaid, have been exhausted and if the Unit Member is not medically able to assume the duties of their position, the Unit Member shall, if not placed in another position, be placed on leave without pay or benefits for a maximum of two (2) years. The Employer shall be notified prior to February 15, upon the decision of the Unit Member to return to service the next school year.
A Unit Member who has been placed on a re-employment list, as provided herein, who has been medically released for return to duty and who fails to accept an appropriate assignment shall be dismissed.
Unit Members may be absent from duty to serve as jurors or court witnesses without loss of pay. Fees paid the Unit Member, over and above expenses, for such services shall be payable to the Employer.
Unit Members called for jury duty whose absence tends to disrupt the normal operation of the School District and who wish to be excused may forward their notice to report for examination or for jury duty immediately upon its receipt to the administrative Officer of the District who will attempt to have the Unit Member excused.
When the Unit Member is a litigant, he/she shall be granted a leave of absence without pay. Requests for leaves as witnesses or litigants shall be made in writing to the administrative office of the Employer.
Unit Members who voluntarily request to serve on a grand jury will not be granted a leave of absence without permission of the Superintendent or designee and approved by the Lammersville Unified School District Board of Education. If permission is granted, the period of time served while absent from duty will be without pay.
Any Unit Member who enters the active military service as defined in Education Code, Section 44800, during any period of national emergency declared by the President of the United States are called for short periods of training duty will be granted leave under provisions of the Military and Veterans Code.
Within six (6) months after leaving the service or being placed on inactive duty, the Unit Member shall be entitled to return to a position comparable to that held by him/her at the time of his/her entrance into military service, at the salary to which he/she would have been entitled had he/she not absented himself/herself from the employment of the School District. A Unit Member on such leave should notify the District in writing of his/her desire to return no less than ninety (90) days after separation from active duty.
Unit Members who are members of the active military reserve are encouraged to take their reserve training during their vacation from school assignment to avoid disruption to the education program. This plan has been approved by all branches of the Armed Forces. Upon receipt of orders, which will require duty during the teaching year, a copy shall be forwarded immediately to the Superintendent of the District, who shall attempt to have the active duty changed to a time when school is not in session. If orders cannot be changed and the Unit Member is required to report, the salary shall be paid in accordance with legal requirements. A written request for military leave shall be submitted to the Superintendent.
After having completed three (3) full years of service with the District, any certificated Unit Member may, at the discretion of the Board, be granted a leave of absence without pay and benefits for purposes of educational improvement and advancement for not less than ninety (90) school days nor more than one (1) year. An extension of the leave period may be granted where completion of the courses for advancement requires longer than one (1) year and where the advantage will accrue to the District.
Unit Members given leaves of absence under this rule shall sign an agreement that the Board will be given written notice no less than ten (10) days before expiration date of the leave, or before March 15, whichever is earlier, of their intention to return. Failure to notify the Board will be considered as notice that the Unit Member will not return and the position is vacant. At least ten (10) days before the notice is due, the Superintendent of the District will remind the Unit Member of this obligation by registered letter.
A written request for such leave shall be made to the Superintendent or designee and submitted to the Board for their decision.
The executive board of the Association (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Site Representatives), shall be allowed to take up to a cumulative total of twelve (12) days leave per year for official association business, i.e., Treasurer’s Workshop, Budget Workshop, Site Representative Training, and other association conferences dealing with the proper, legal, and ethical workings of a bargaining unit.
The District has determined that a Catastrophic Leave Program shall be developed for the benefit of permanent Unit Members of the Lammersville Unified School District.
Full-time permanent certificated Unit Members will be permitted to donate eligible leave to other full-time permanent Unit Members of the District who have exhausted all leave entitlements. If a Unit Member or a member of the Unit Member’s family suffers from a catastrophic illness or injury, the Unit Member may request eligible leave from the program.
The Catastrophic Leave Program shall be administered by the Catastrophic Leave Committee. The Committee shall be composed of two (2) representatives of the Lammersville Teachers Association and two (2) District Administrative personnel. The Catastrophic Leave Program shall be in accordance with Education Code Section 444043.5.
Eligible Unit Members who donate or receive eligible leave under the Catastrophic Leave Program shall specifically hold the District, its Board of Education members, officers, trustees, employees, and the program’s committee members harmless with respect to the Catastrophic Leave Program. The District’s Board of Education members, officers, trustees, employees, and the program’s committee members shall not be responsible in any way nor held liable for the following actions, including but not limited to the development and administration of the Catastrophic Leave Program.
The Catastrophic Leave Committee shall administer the Catastrophic Leave Program. The Committee will be composed of representatives from the Lammersville Teacher’s Association and District Administration. Association representatives will serve two (2) year terms and may be reappointed by the organization.
For purposes of administering the Catastrophic Leave Program, the following definitions shall apply:
a. Permanent Unit Member: A full-time permanent Unit Member is a certificated Unit Member who has served the required probationary period and achieved permanent status.
b. Eligible Leave: Eligible leave is accrued to the donating Unit Members.
c. Catastrophic Illness or Injury: As defined by Education Code Section 44043.5(a)(1) “catastrophic illness” or “injury” means an illness or injury that is expected to incapacitate the Unit Member for an extended period of time, or that incapacitates a member of the Unit Member’s family which incapacity requires the Unit Member to take time off from work for an extended period of time for that family member, and taking extended time off work creates a financial hardship for the Unit Member because he or she has exhausted all of his or her sick leave and other time off.
d. Family Member: For purposes of this policy, a family member is defined as a spouse, child or step-child, legally adopted child, mother or father, step-mother or step-father, or any relative living in the home of the Unit Member for whom the Unit Member has sole responsibility. The committee will give consideration to special circumstances.
e. Maximum Donation: Initially, a maximum donation shall be no more than five (5) days. Sick leave may not be transferred by any Unit Member who, following transfer of the designated sick leave, will have less than fifteen (15) days of accumulated sick leave.
f. Minimum Donation: The initial minimum donation is one (1) day of earned sick leave for a full-time Unit Member. A minimum donation is required in order to be eligible to draw from the Program, and the donation must be made prior to the onset of the catastrophic illness or injury.
g. Exhaustion of Leave Entitlement: The Unit Member has exhausted all paid leave entitlement when all accrued paid leave, including sick leave differential, has been used.
The full-time permanent Unit Member who is, or whose family member is, suffering from a catastrophic illness or injury shall submit a written request for leave donation to the Catastrophic Leave Committee on a form provided by the Committee. The Unit Member must have exhausted all entitlement of paid leave in order to be eligible for leave donations. Verification of the nature of the illness/disability, anticipated length of absence, and prognosis for recovery must be provided by a medical doctor on a form developed and provided by the Committee. Reasons requiring the presence of the Unit Member to care for a family member will be required. Further information such as information of financial hardship may be requested by the Committee.
Final determination of whether to grant the catastrophic leave will be made by a majority vote of the Catastrophic Leave Committee. Consideration will be given to whether the incapacitated Unit Member has a permanent disability.
Leave requests will be evaluated monthly, or as needed. Pay will not be granted for any day the Unit Member is not formally scheduled to work. A Unit Member who received paid leave pursuant to this policy shall use any leave that he or she continues to accrue on a monthly basis prior to receiving paid leave donated by other Unit Members.
A statement regarding the availability of the Catastrophic Leave Program will be added to the annual statement of leave balances provided to all Unit Members as well as information on the minimum donation required to participate in the Program.
LTA Unit members, following an adoption of a child, may use up to 10 days of sick leave for bonding purposes. This leave must commence within the first twelve months of the adoption.