NORTH SANPETE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Creating Conditions for Learning So All Students Can Succeed
NORTH SANPETE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Creating Conditions for Learning So All Students Can Succeed
IV-33: Sick Leave
North Sanpete School District
Statement of…………………….
Board Policy With Guidelines
Policy Number: IV-33
Effective Date: 12/12/2000
Revised Date: 12/15/2014
Revised Date: 03/17/2015
Revised Date: 11/19/2019
Subject: Sick Leave
BOARD POLICY
The North Sanpete Board of Education will provide sick leave benefits as explained below to qualifying employees. It is expected that these employees will be wise and prudent in their use of sick leave.
GUIDELINES
- Teachers, counselors, psychologists, social workers, administrators, and “permanent” classified employees (as defined in Policy IV‑69) who are employees of the North Sanpete School District and work 3.5 hours or more per day earn paid sick leave benefits at the rate of 20 of the employee's work days of sick leave per school year. This may accumulate to not more than 120 days of sick leave. At the end of each school year, unused sick leave days will be carried forward to the employee's credit until a maximum of 120 days have been accumulated.
- Employees hired before July 1, 2013, in at-will positions, who work 3.5 hours or more per day will have 10 sick days per year and 2 personal days. Sick leave days accumulated before 6/30/00 (up to 120 days) will be honored. Employees in at-will positions with continued service (at least one continuous year of employment) may be paid up to five sick leave days prior to January. In any event, no more than ten sick leave days will be paid in any contract year. Employees in at-will positions hired on or after July 1, 2013 will be allowed up to fifteen days of unpaid sick leave in a three-year period.
- Sick leave benefits are earned throughout the contract year, not at the beginning of the year. Employees will not be paid sick leave benefits that are not yet earned. In the event that an employee becomes ill during the year of employment and uses more sick leave than the employee has earned, the employee will not be paid in advance for sick leave not yet earned. However, if the employee wishes to apply for earned sick leave at the end of the year to cover days of unpaid sick leave that were deducted earlier in the year, the employee may apply for this adjustment.
- Sick leave for a partial year of employment is accrued in terms of the number of days the employee has worked for the school district compared to the number of days in a full‑year contract for that employee's position. All sick leave benefits, however, will be settled at the end of the contract year and employees may not be paid sick leave benefits for an upcoming year or benefits which have not yet been earned during that contract period.
- Sick leave may be used for direct illness of the employee. Sick leave may also be used by the employee, when it becomes necessary for the employee to be absent from work to care for a sick spouse, a sick dependent child as defined by FMLA, or a sick parent. Up to three sick days per year may also be used to care for other family members.
- Sick leave may be used for medical appointments that cannot be scheduled or handled outside of contract hours.
- Sick leave benefits are to be requested by the employee within 5 days after his or her return to employment following an illness. The employee will complete the district leave form appropriately and hand it to the principal or the appropriate supervisor. The principal or supervisor will verify dates and times of sick leave and will recommend whether the sick leave will be granted or not. This sick leave form will be handed to the Superintendent/Principal for review and for office records. The principal or designee shall also record the name of the substitute when one is required.
- Employees need to notify his/her supervisor or designee whenever he/she will be gone. If the employee is absent for more than 5 cumulative working days due to illness, the District may request a physician's statement regarding absences. Any employee absent more than ten (10) consecutive days in one year will provide a doctor’s note, including estimated return to work date. Follow-up doctors’s notes will be required every ten (10) days of sick leave used thereafter. Employees returning after ten (10) or more consecutive days of sick leave (and/or major medical procedure), must provide a doctor’s release to return to work.
- Upon retiring from the North Sanpete School District through the Utah Retirement System after a minimum of ten (10) years of continuous service in the District immediately prior to retirement, or upon qualifying for early retirement under policy IV-43, employees working for the district between ten and twenty-four years shall be compensated for twenty percent of unused sick leave, employees with twenty-five to twenty-nine years shall be compensated twenty-one percent, and employees with thirty or more years shall receive twenty-two percent of their unused sick leave. The amount of pay will be determined by computing the average salary for the last ten (10) years of service in the North Sanpete School District.
- For professional (not provisional) employees identified in paragraph 1, Extended Sick Leave (66.67% salary) will be provided beginning as early as the 21st day of absence up to six months of continuous absence (when long-term disability can begin at 66.67% salary). Employees may use accumulated sick leave at full pay until it runs out, then use extended sick leave as needed up to six months total. Employees may use up to 100 days of Extended Sick Leave in a two-year period. Employees should begin application for extended sick leave, which requires a doctor verification, at least a week before coverage begins. If Long-Term Disability will be asked for, the employee must request it three months before coverage begins.