Medical & Leaves
HEALTH INSURANCE BENEFITS
OHSD employees are given dental, vision, and long-term disability insurance. These are mandatory. Each employee is also given an allotment to purchase medical insurance. For many employees, this allotment is not enough, so they have out-of-pocket expenses each month. Some of these out-of-pocket expenses are reduced through insurance pooling.
All OHSD employees have their insurance provided through the School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB). This includes medical, dental and vision.
FLEXIBLE SPENDING
A Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA) enables you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for your out-of-pocket health and day care costs. You can rollover up to $500 from the previous plan year into the new plan year which begins 11/01/16 and runs through 10/31/17. Enrollment closes on September 30. (Flex Plan Services Website)
LEAVE INFORMATION
Sick/Emergency Leave:
5.1 Illness, Injury, and Emergency Leave – Twelve (12) days of illness, injury, and emergency leave shall be granted each year to all full-time employees for illness, injury, and emergencies. Employees whose employment is terminated prior to the end of the contract year shall earn illness, injury, and emergency leave prorated proportionally.
Maternity Leave:
5.1.1 Maternity Leave – Temporary disability leave will be granted for pregnancy. An employee requesting maternity leave shall give written notice to the District as far in advance as possible and at least thirty (30) days prior to commencement of leave. The request for leave should include the anticipated date of birth; the estimated date leave is to begin; and the estimated date of return from leave. The employee may continue to work until, in the judgment of her physician, her work or her health will be impaired by her condition. Illness, injury, and emergency leave shall be granted for maternity, if the employee is eligible for such, for the time that her health care provider certifies that the she is unable to perform her normal duties as an employee because of her health or disability. Employees may use maternity leave in conjunction with unpaid infant care leave as provided for in section 5.4.1.
5.4.1.3 Infant Care – Leave shall be granted to any employee for early infant care provided the District receives the application for infant care leave forty-five (45) days prior to the estimated date of the commencement of the leave. Such leave may be granted for up to one (1) calendar year and may be extended at the discretion of the Superintendent or his or her designee/designee.
Links and Documents
Board Policy 5404: Family, Maternity, and Military Caregiver Leave
Washington Human Rights Commission: Pregnancy/Maternity Leave Questions
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries: Pregnancy and Parental Leave
VEBA
The Association votes each year to participate in the VEBA program. For those employees who accumulate 180 days of sick/emergency leave, any sick/emergency leave over 180 days is automatically placed in a VEBA account a 4 to 1 ratio--which is basically like a Health Savings Account. Money in your VEBA account earns interest and is tax free; it can be used for health-related needs, For those employees who retire or separate from service, accumulated sick/emergency leave up to 180 upon retirement or separation is placed in your VEBA account. Most employees use their VEBA funds to purchase bridge insurance until Medicare applies; for those employees who have an alternate source of medical insurance, such as the military, they use their VEBA funds for other health-related needs.
Resources
Brian Riehs, VEBA Consultant * (800) 422-4023
Annual Leave:
OHEA has bargained all full time certificated staff will receive 3 days of annual (or personal) leave each year. You can use your days for “family and personal reasons.” You can carry over up to 2 days into another school year; you can then use up to 5 annual days consecutively. Restrictions apply. You can also cash out your annual days.
5.5.2 Annual Leave – Up to three (3) days annual leave, with pay, may be granted to each employee each year. Employees may carry over up to two (2) annual leave days not to exceed a total five (5) annual leave days in any one (1) year. Application for annual leave shall be processed in advance using the Certificated Staff Attendance Form. The employee shall give notice for such leave, identifying it as annual leave, to the Principal or immediate supervisor forty-eight (48) hours in advance of taking said leave. In situations when advance notification cannot be given, the Principal or immediate supervisor shall be notified as soon as possible.
Annual leave shall be granted for family and personal reasons.
Annual leave may not be used during the first two (2) instructional days of the school year or during parent-teacher conferences, provided that certificated employees whose work assignments do not normally require them to conduct parent-teacher conferences may use annual leave during parent-teacher conferences with prior approval of their supervisor. No more than five (5) consecutive annual leave days may be taken at any one time. Further, no more than two (2) annual leave days each may be taken connected to the Winter and Spring break holidays.
No more than eight-percent (8%) of the employees in any school building or five percent (5%) of the total work force of the District shall be granted annual leave on any one (1) instructional day provided, that these limits do not apply to employees who do not require a substitute.
The above restrictions may be waived by the Human Resources Department for honors and awards to a spouse or child (i.e., graduation, state tournaments, college musical or drama presentations, professional awards) as well as military send-offs and homecomings.
In cases where more than the percent allowed apply for annual leave, leave shall be granted on the basis of order of application.
Annual leave may be exchanged for additional optional days, at the rate of one (1) annual leave day for one (1) day, per diem. The use of optional days is governed by Article 6, section 3 of this Agreement.
Unused annual leave days may be cashed out at the end of the school year at the per diem rate not to exceed a cash out of two (2) days in any one (1) year. The additional compensation will be paid no later than the August paycheck.
Bereavement Leave:
You are given leave by the District to attend the funeral of a relative or close personal friend. The leave is not deducted from your sick/emergency or annual leave. You are given up to 5 days for immediate family and up to 3 days for less immediate family and close personal friends.
5.2 - Bereavement Leave – Employees shall use discretion in accessing bereavement leave. Bereavement leave shall not be accumulated and shall not be taken from sick leave. The District shall allow certificated employees up to five (5) days per occurrence of paid bereavement leave in the event of death of members of the household, spouse, siblings, parents, children (or anyone having the position of child, parent, or sibling who at one time resided in the same household), grandparents, grandchildren, foster children, mother or father-in-law, and son or daughter-in-law. The District shall allow up to three (3) days per occurrence of paid bereavement leave up to a total of six (6) days per year for aunts, uncles, siblings in law, and anyone having the position of child, parent, or sibling who are not included in the five (5) day provision, or to attend the funeral of a close personal friend. Under extenuating circumstances up to five (5) days per occurrence of additional leave may be taken from emergency leave. Additional time may be granted at the discretion of the Superintendent.
Leave to Attend Conferences:
The District can pay to provide you a substitute so that you can attend a professional training or conference (although other costs are borne by the employee unless other arrangements are made).
5.5.5 Conference or Seminar Leave – Upon prior approval by the Board or its designee, leaves may be granted to employees to attend meetings, conferences, symposiums, and seminars at which concerns vital or useful to education are the subject of discussion. Employees on such leave shall receive their basic salary. Necessary expenses shall be paid by the employees or outside agency. When the employee is specifically designated as the District representative to such meeting, the employee's expenses, including substitute costs, shall also be paid by the District.
Leave-Sharing:
If you run out of leave and still have a need, you can ask your colleagues to donate their leave.
Leave-sharing requests are granted for major medical conditions or events of either the employee or immediate relatives of the employee. To apply for leave-sharing, send an email to Kurt Schonberg, Human Resources Director at the ASC, asking to participate in leave-sharing. Address the email to Renee Coe and cc Kurt. Once your need is approved, OHEA sends a request to members who are eligible to donate. You'll need to decide how much or how little information about your need you're comfortable in making public. Any donated leave can be carried over into the following year if it is used for the same medical condition of event that was approved for donated leave. After that, any remaining donated leave is returned to the donor(s). There is a life-time cap of 522 donated leave days that an employee can accept.
Certificated employees may donate accumulated sick leave days to colleagues who are in need due to a lack of their own accumulated sick leave and an inability to work—either due to their own major medical condition or that of a family member.
Any certificated employee with 22 stored sick days can donate any number of days as long as that employee does not go below 22 stored sick days.
5.3 Illness, Injury, and Emergency Leave Sharing – Employees may donate illness, injury, and emergency leave to another employee subject to the following:
The donating employee must have an accrued illness, injury, and emergency leave balance of more than twenty-two (22) days.
The donating employee cannot request a transfer that would result in his or her illness, injury, and emergency leave account going below twenty-two (22) days.
An employee who receives leave under this section will retain his or her status as a district employee. An employee who receives leave under this section in excess of what is immediately used may be permitted to retain the donated leave until the District determines that the donated leave is no longer needed, or will not be needed at a future time, in connection with the illness or injury for which it was originally transferred.