File:  GBGH - Staff Sick Leave Bank

Purpose:

The purpose of the sick leave bank (bank) is to provide a source of sick leave to participating district employees who have exhausted their accumulated leave.  Leave drawn from the bank shall be used only for the participating employee's personal injury, illness, or other incapacity, or the injury, illness, or other incapacity of an immediate family member.  For purposes of this policy, the term "immediate family" shall be defined as parents, spouse, partner in a civil union, children, step-children and foster children.

Participating employees are expected to appropriately manage annual personal leave.  The bank is not intended to provide for sporadic or intermittent illness including intermittent illness that occurs after an employee has exhausted his or her accumulated leave or after using sick leave bank for a qualifying illness.

Membership:

Full-time and part-time employees may participate in the sick leave bank by voluntarily donating one day of sick leave to the bank at the time of their employment.  Employees not participating at their time of employment may participate by donating one day of sick leave to the bank during the open enrollment period, which shall be defined as the start of the new school year until October 1.  Donated days are non-reimbursable to the employee.  If the balance in the bank drops below 50 days, participating employees will be asked to donate one additional day if they wish to stay eligible for this benefit.

Upon retirement from the district, employees may donate all or any portion of their accumulated sick leave to the bank, except that the maximum number of days in the bank at any one time shall not exceed 200 days.

Use:

1.  Members will submit a written application to the committee (through the Superintendent) for use of the sick leave bank. Requests for use must be accompanied by medical and/or other certification as described in the District's sick leave and Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") policies.

2.  The employee MUST have exhausted all accumulated leave (i.e., sick, vacation or any other allowable leave) and have taken 5 days paid at one-half the employee's regular pay before applying for leave from the bank.

3.  The use of the days from the bank may not be used in conjunction with other programs or benefits (i.e., social security, PERA or workers' compensation) and will be further limited according to the following scale:

The maximum number of days granted to any member from the sick leave bank per school year for personal illness or injury shall be 25 consecutive days.  There are no rights to sick leave bank maximum limits.

Five days shall be the maximum number of days granted for the care of a member's immediate family. Days in the bank are cumulative and will be available for use in subsequent school years.

Repayment Contributions:

Participating members who draw leave from the bank will continue to be participating members of the bank after the leave drawn is used, but they are required to thereafter contribute half of the leave days drawn from the bank at a rate of no less than 1 day per year until all leave drawn has been re-contributed.  Participating employees who are reimbursing the bank for leave drawn, must still contribute sick leave days required to be donated by all participating employees.  Any employee who leaves employment with the District prior to reimbursing the bank for leave drawn will forfeit to the bank any unused, accumulated leave in order to fulfill his or her obligation before he or she will be reimbursed for any accumulated, but unused leave pursuant to Board policy.

Committee Membership:

The bank shall be administered by a committee of six members, including one from PreK-4, one from Yuma Middle School, one from Yuma High School, one classified employee, one district level HR director and one at-large member. The members will be nominated and appointed by the committee at the beginning of the school year to a four-year term.  Committee members are limited to serving one term. Nominations and appointments will be staggered every two years.

When a vacancy occurs on the committee, it shall be filled with an appointment by the committee for the remainder of the term. The position will be filled by a member from the building in which the vacancy occurred. A committee member may resign from the committee. Employees participating in the sick leave bank may petition for the removal of a committee member. Committee members may only be removed by a two-thirds vote of sick leave bank participating members.  Committee members appointed due to early resignation of a sick leave bank committee member shall fulfill the remainder of that term and then are eligible for re-election to a full four-year term.

The committee shall determine the validity of the member employee's request and determine whether the requests shall be denied, granted or granted in part. In making these determinations, the committee shall give consideration to the following factors:

1.  Member's past conservation and fair use of leave policies.

2.  The seriousness of past and current illnesses and injuries.

3.  Any unusual circumstances involved.

Further, in making these determinations, the committee shall review information presented by the participating employee and may consider information available from any other reliable and relevant source.

Committee members shall not disclose any confidential health information provided to them in furtherance of their responsibilities, except to the extent disclosure is required by law, court order or authorized by the Board of Education or this policy.

The committee will notify the applicant and the Superintendent of its decision in written form.  Any decision made by the committee will be final.

In May, the committee will submit a summary of the current year's activity to the Superintendent and the Board of Education. If the bank reaches 200 days, the Board may review the bank's procedures. If the membership drops below 50% of district employees, the validity of maintaining the bank will be reviewed by the committee and the Board of Education.

Approved:  October 22, 1981

Revised:  August 12, 1993

Revised:  October 14, 2002

Revised:  November 10, 2008

Revised:  February 14, 2011

Revised:  June 17, 2013

Revised:  October 16, 2017

Revised:  October 30, 2017

Revised:  May 21, 2018

Revised:  October 15, 2018