The changes were adopted during a special BOE meeting on Saturday.
“The reason for the changes in the policy is to prevent abuse of the annual leave (vacation time) by some teachers who immediately use up all their annual leaves at once which creates scheduling problems in trying to find substitute teachers for this long periods of absence,” BOE Chairwoman Lucy Blanco-Maratita told Variety.
She said previously, certified personnel get the entire two weeks of annual leave “up front and can immediately use it all up at once.”
However, she added, the sick leave is still given in lump sum to teachers.
Blanco-Maratita defined annual leave as a discretionary leave which means that in order to use it, the employee will have to get advance approval.
Sick leave, she said, can be used for illness and one does not need to get prior approval.
BOE legal counsel Karen Claver said unused annual leave may also be cashed out “upon availability of funds” at the end of the school year.
This, she added will help reduce the liability of the school system.
The existing policy on annual leave was adopted by the board in 2004.
It mandates that upon start of the personnel’s employment contract with the school system, a whole annual leave package will be granted to them.
Under the new policy, each annual leave must be earned every pay period.
PSS is still short of teachers as a result of not having enough funding to hire additional personnel.
PSS is also facing difficulties in the hiring for hard-to-fill positions, especially in the special education program and content areas.
The board recently approved a salary differential for hard-to-fill positions to make its recruitment efforts more “competitive.”
