Full-time state employees, which includes local educators, will be able to take advantage of an additional five days of credited annual leave during the upcoming school year. Legislators recently approved the one-time extension that is valid through June 30, 2013 and is available to any employee who is under contract as of July 1.
The topic was brought to the attention of the Clinton City Board of Education Tuesday night by Clyde Locklear, assistant superintendent of finance and facilities, who referenced Section 25.5 of Session Law 2012-142.
“The days are good through this fiscal year, July 1 through June 30, 2013 and is available to any employee who is under contract as of July 1,” Locklear explained. “The days are available to any employee who is eligible for annual leave. Anybody coming in after July 1 will not be eligible for these benefits.”
Locklear noted that the days will work just like an annual leave day, and the days will not carry over — they must be used by June 30.
“Instructional staff are limited when they can take annual leave days,” Locklear explained. “A teacher or any employee that requires a substitute cannot take an annual leave day on a day when students are in session, so this limits when the bonus annual leave days can be used.”
On Clinton City Schools current calendar, there are only 12 possible days the additional annual leave days can be used.
“These are the days that are built into the calendar and are the ones available for our instructional folks to utilize those five bonus annual leave days,” noted Locklear. ” We are planning to designate the five days at Easter break as the Bonus Annual Leave days. That is five consecutive days that are built into the calendar that are part of the 10 required leave days.”
He also told the board that those days will be applied to all non-12 month employees as well, “ensuring that those employees will have an opportunity to use them so they do not lose the day at the end of the school year.”
The additional five days of annual leave will be paid out of local funds.
The board listened to the explanation but offered no comment nor posed any questions.
Board re-organization
After being in closed session for close to an hour, interim board attorney Nickolas J. Sojka Jr. told board members he would like to clear up any procedural issues lingering following a split vote of the board regarding its re-organization some 28 days ago, one that left E.R. Mason as chairman and Georgina Zeng as vice chairwoman.
Sojka unexpectedly asked the board to move forward with new nominations for the board chairman and vice chairman after Wednesday’s closed session
Randy Barefoot nominated Mason for chairman, with Zeng seconding it. No other nominations were made and the vote was unanimous, officially keeping Mason at the board’s helm.
Sojka asked for nominations for vice chairperson to which Mason quickly nominated Zeng, with Jason Walters seconding the measure. No other nominations were made and the board voted unanimously to keep Zeng in her role.
A month ago, the board split votes for chairman between Mason and Diane Viser for chairman. Viser, Barefoot and Walters voted for Viser; Zeng, Mason and Carol Worley voted for Zeng.
When Viser requested a re-vote, removing her nomination, then board attorney Albert Kirby said it could not be done since a vote had already been taken.
Similarly, the vote for vice chairman was also a split vote, with Carol Worley nominating Zeng and Viser nominating Barefoot. Again the vote was 3-3, with Viser, Barefoot and Walters voting for Barefoot and Worley, Zeng and Mason voting for Zeng.
Because of the stalemate, Kirby said that Mason and Zeng would remain.
To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or email to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.
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