August 27, 2009 Specially called Consultation Meeting.

This meeting was held to discuss proposed changes to Board Policy DEC (LEGAL) and DEC (LOCAL), Compensation and Benefits - Leaves and Absences. The policy needs to change in order to accommodate SB 522 which reads:

. . . The board of trustees of a school district may adopt a policy governing an employee's use of personal leave granted under this subsection, except that the policy may not restrict: (1) the purposes for which the leave may be used; or (2) the order in which an employee may use the state minimum personal leave and any additional personal leave provided by the school district. (f) A public school employee who retains any sick leave accumulated under former Section 13.904(a), as that section existed on January 1, 1995, is entitled to use the sick leave provided under that section or the personal leave provided under Subsection (a) in any order to the extent that the leave the employee uses is appropriate to the purpose of the leave.

In short this means that employees may now determine if leave time is deducted from state leave or local leave. It will now be possible for an employee to use local leave hours first and accumulate state leave. This is important because state leave is transferable and will follow an employee from district to district. The employee may decide after each absence the number of hours deducted from each of the leave banks. This is a great benefit.

Unfortunately however it appears that HISD can’t stand to see a happy employee. While there is no proposed policy change yet, the district strongly hinted that there will be a change in the district’s Attendance Incentive Plan. Since 1998 employees have been able to sell back to the district any accrued but unused state leave using any one of three listed options. Under the new rules, an employee can use local leave and sell back state leave. The district claims this will be a huge financial liability to HISD and a change in the “buy-back” policy is likely. HFT will oppose any policy change that will prevent an employee from taking full advantage of the new law.