11.18 Broken Arrow School District Sick Leave Donation Guidelines

Sick leave days may be donated from one District employee to another within the following guidelines:

1. Permission to receive donations will be granted only for a District employee
who is pregnant or recovering from childbirth or who is suffering from or has a relative or household member suffering from an extraordinary or severe illness, injury, impairment or physical or mental condition that has caused or will cause the employee to exhaust all accumulated sick leave earned pursuant to Title 70, Section 6-104 of the Oklahoma Statutes and that has caused or is likely to cause the employee to take leave without pay or to terminate employment, as determined by a committee appointed by the Board of Education.

2. For purposes of this policy, the following definitions apply:

"Relative of the employee" means a spouse, child, stepchild, grandchild,
grandparent, step-parent or parent of the employee.

"Household members" means those persons who reside in the same home, who
have reciprocal duties to and do provide financial support for one another, including foster children and legal wards, even if they do not live in the household. This term does not include persons sharing the same general house, when the living style is primarily that of a dormitory or commune.

"Severe" or "extraordinary" means serious, extreme or life-threatening, including
temporary disability resulting from pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth and recovery therefrom."

"District employee" means a teacher or any fulltime employee of the School
District. Whether an employee is a "fulltime employee of the School District" will be determined by the standard period of labor which is customarily understood to constitute fulltime employment for the type of services performed by the employee.

3. The request for permission to receive donations must be in writing and may be
presented to the Executive Director of Human Resources by the District employee or another employee (acting with the affected employee’s permission) on his or her behalf. The Executive Director of Human Resources will call a meeting of the committee appointed by the Board of Education. A district employee may be eligible to receive donations if the Board committee determines that the employee meets the criteria described in these guidelines and the employee has followed district policies regarding the use of sick leave. To allow the Board committee to determine whether the employee meets the criteria described in these guidelines, the employee must first submit a medical certificate from a licensed physician or healthcare practitioner verifying the severe or extraordinary nature and expected duration of the condition. Donated sick leave may only be utilized for the duration of the actual disability as specified by the physician.

4. A donee may not use any donated sick leave until his or her own sick leave
earned pursuant to Title 70, Section 6-104 of the Oklahoma Statutes has been exhausted.
For certified staff, this includes the 20 days of sub-deduct time. Non-certified staff must use all accrued vacation time. The donee may use donated sick leave only for the purposes specified in this policy.

5. Donated sick leave will be paid at the daily rate of the donee, not the donor.
The sick leave received by the donee will be designated as donated sick leave and will be maintained separately from all other sick leave balances.

6. Donated sick leave days will be taken from a donor’s sick leave balance only
as needed based upon the order of donor response to each request as determined by the Board committee. If any donated sick leave days are taken from a donor and not used by the donee during an occurrence, then those days shall be returned to the donor.

7. Donations may be made only during the academic year (July 1 – June 30) in which the employee is determined to be eligible to receive donations. Sick leave donations to not roll from one fiscal year to the next.

8. An employee may donate only days that are earned and accumulated. The donor may donate any amount of sick leave provided the donation does not cause his or her sick leave balance to fall below eighty (80) hours.

9. An employee shall not be determined to be eligible for donations more than once per diagnosis during his or her term of employment by the District.

10. Any contribution of sick leave by one employee to another is strictly
voluntary. No employee shall be coerced, threatened, intimidated or financially induced into donating sick leave under this policy. Each contribution of sick leave must be in writing by the donor to the office of the Executive Director of Human Resources.


Source: Broken Arrow Board of Education policy adoption, July 22, 2002