A. Sick leave
1. Sickness or death. Each employee is credited with four (4) days sick leave the first day of employment. Hence, he/she is credited with an additional day at the end of each month of employment not to exceed one day for each month of employment. All sick leave accumulates without maximum. The unused portion of sick leave shall accumulate from year to year. Sick leave shall be defined as leave for personal illness or disability of the employee, or illness or death of a member of his/her immediate family. Immediate family shall be defined as a spouse, parent, child, brother, sister, other close relative or any dependent relative who resides within the employee‘s household.
All or any portion of the sick leave taken by an employee because of her pregnancy may, at the employee‘s option, be charged to her accrued sick leave according to the following:
1) Absence must be due to illness due to pregnancy or disability caused by pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, childbirth and recovery there from, all of which shall hereafter be referred to as a pregnancy.
2) A teacher shall keep the principal informed as to the date of probable return to the assignment.
2. Personal Leave: Six (6) days of accrued sick leave may be used for the employee‘s personal business, provided the employee can not take more than five (5) personal days consecutively.
Personal leave requests shall not be approved for any day immediately preceding or following a paid holiday. The exceptions to this provision are:
1) in the case of an emergency
2) bereavement for a member of the employee‘s immediate family as defined in Article XI.1(A)(1) of this contract
3) to observe a religious holiday of the employee‘s faith
When misuse of personal leave is suspected, the Superintendent or his/her designee may investigate and require verification of the emergency, bereavement or religious observation.
An employee planning to use a sick leave day or days for personal business will notify the principal one (1) day in advance. The principal may waive the one-day notice in cases of emergency.
3. There shall be no limit on the number of days of sick leave an employee may accrue, except that at least one-half of this cumulative leave must be established within this district.
4. Effective for employees hired on or after July 1, 2011. Sick leave accrued and transferred in from another qualifying employer under F.S. §1012.61(2)(a)1 shall be brought in for purposes of sick leave only, and not for purposes of terminal pay for accumulated sick leave pursuant to Section H. and/or I. of this contract. Any sick leave taken by an employee shall be chargedfirst against leave earned in the District until exhausted and then against leave transferred in from another qualifying employer under F.S. §1012.61(2)(a)1.
5. Return to Active Employment. Upon return from sick leave, the employee shall be returned to his/her former position if available or to a substantially similar position for which the employee is qualified, and shall be placed at the same position on the salary schedule as if the employee had been in actual service to the district during such leave. ―Substantially similar‖ as used above shall mean positions requiring the same certification as the former position.
B. Verification of leave: Upon return from leave as described in paragraph ―A‖ the employee shall complete the necessary forms for verification of the reason for absence. Such forms shall be readily available and submitted to the immediate supervisor by the end of the second full work day following the employee‘s return from leave.
C. Extended professional leave with pay: For the encouragement of continued professional development and resulting improvement in the quality and level of experience of the teaching staff, extended professional leave with pay for periods not to exceed one school year may be granted by the Board.
1. Any certified employee who has satisfactorily completed six (6) consecutive years teaching service in the school district immediately prior to applying for sabbatical leave may apply for extended professional leave with pay.
2. An extended professional leave with pay may be granted to permit a certified employee to engage in study, travel study, or research.
3. A certified employee who requests an extended professional leave with pay for study will be expected to enroll as a full-time student carrying a full load (full-time student as determined by the institution attended) of academic work at an institution of higher learning approved by the appropriate accrediting agency.

4. The applications for extended professional leave with pay, including a plan for study, travel study, or research, must be submitted to the Superintendent or his/her designee during the period of January 15th to February 15th preceding the school year for which the leave is requested. Applicants will be notified not later than March 31 as to the disposition of their applications. An employee receiving permission to take extended professional leave with pay shall inform the Superintendent, in writing, of his/her intention to either accept or decline such leave. Such notifications shall be given not later than fifteen (15) days after the applicant has been notified of approval of his/her request for leave.
5. Three (3) employees may be granted extended professional leave during one school year.
6. An employee making application for his/her first extended professional leave with pay shall have preference over one who has previously had such leave. Upon termination of an extended professional leave, an employee shall not be entitled to another such leave until he/she has completed an additional six (6) years of service in the school district.

7. The employee who takes an extended professional leave with pay shall agree in writing to teach one (1) year in this school district after returning from such leave. If he/she fails to fulfill this obligation before a two (2) year period has elapsed, he/she shall repay the school district the salary paid him/her while on leave, within thirty (30) days.
8. During extended professional leave with pay, the employee‘s insurance premiums provided according to this contract shall be paid by the Board.
9. Extended professional leave with pay may be counted as one year‘s experience for the purpose of salary schedule computations.
10. Extended professional leave with pay shall provide for the employee to receive seventy-five percent (75%) of the salary that the employee would receive if in actual service to the district.
D. Professional leave days with pay may be granted, upon approval of the School Board, to employees for the purpose of:
1. attending and/or participating in professional educational meetings relating to educational workshops, seminars, or conferences sponsored by professional educational organizations, colleges, universities or government agencies concerned with public school matters.
2. visitations for the purpose of observing instructional techniques or programs.
3. serving as an authorized delegate of the Association, to state and/or national affiliate‘s convention, workshops, lobbying, or school site visits. The number of days shall not exceed 2.2% of the bargaining unit members for this purpose. Members of the Association Executive Board may use no more than 20% of the 2.2% days for school site visits. No one person may use more than 2 days for school site visits. The primary purpose of a school site visit is not to recruit members. As a pilot project, four (4) additional days shall be granted to five (5) identified Executive Board members for the purpose of receiving training beneficial to the District. A committee of three (3) members appointed by the Superintendent and three (3) members of the Association shall be established for purposes of assessing the pilot project. If needed, ten (10) additional days for Association business shall be reimbursed to the School Board at the substitute daily rate.
E. Any employee called for jury duty during school hours or who is subpoenaed to testify during school hours in any judicial or administrative matter in which the employee is not a party (unless subpoenaed by the other party) shall be paid the normal salary.

F. When a school has a required night meeting, an employee shall be excused to attend a college
credit course provided:
1. The course is needed for recertification or for educational certification in another area, and;
2. A professional leave form has been submitted and approved by the Martin County School Board. Appropriate documentation must accompany the request.
3. An employee who teaches an adult education class may be excused from a required night meeting upon submission of a personal leave form to the principal.
G. Illness-In-The-Line-of-Duty leave not to exceed ten (10) working days shall be granted, without
loss of sick leave, to any employee absent from his/her duties because of personal injury received
in the discharge of duty or because of illness from any contagious or infectious disease contracted
in school work. In the case of sickness or injury occurring under such circumstances as in the
opinion of the Board warrants it, additional leave may be granted.

H. TERMINAL PAY FOR SICK LEAVE
1. Employees hired on or before June 30, 2011 shall be entitled to receive pay for accumulated sick leave upon retirement, resignation, or death as follows:
a) After ten (10) years of service, the daily rate of pay multiplied by fifty percent (50%); or
b) After fifteen (15) years of service, the daily rate of pay multiplied by one hundred percent (100%).
2. Employees hired after July 1, 2011, shall be entitled to receive pay for accumulated sick leave established within the district upon retirement, resignation, or death as follows:
a) After fifteen (15) years of service, the daily rate of pay multiplied by fifty percent (50%).
3. Employees qualifying for the above terminal pay must retire or resign at the end of the school year and give ninety (90) days prior notice. The Superintendent may waive these requirements.
4. It is agreed that implementation of the changes to this section shall occur only following implementation of the same or greater benefit reductions by employees represented by AFSCME as well as for non-bargaining employee groups via changes to School Board rules. Absent the same or greater benefit reductions within those employee groups, the changes contained within this section shall be null and void and the language shall revert back to language as contained within the 2013-14 contract.
I. Military Leave Provision
Military leave will be granted to an employee pursuant to provisions outlined in Florida Statutes section 1012.66, as well as Florida Statutes sections 115.07, 115.09, and 115.14, that allow the protection of civilian pay, benefits, and position during the time that the employee is called to active service of the Armed Forces.
1. Any employee who is a member of the National Guard or any reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States who is ordered by appropriate authorities to attend a prescribed training program shall be granted leave and shall be paid the first seventeen (17) working days of such training in accordance with section 115.07, Florida Statutes. Leave with pay shall not be granted to an employee who voluntarily extends his or her training time or who is required to serve additional training time due to excessive absences from prior training periods.
2. Reservists or National Guard Members called for active duty will be granted leave in accordance with section 115.14, Florida Statutes, and will be reinstated in accordance with the requirements of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (―USERRA‖). In accordance with section 115.14, Florida Statutes, the first thirty (30) days of active duty service will be with full pay.
3. Application for reemployment shall be filed with the School Board within six (6) months following the date of discharge of release from active military duty, and the Board shall have a reasonable time not to exceed three (3) months, to reassign the employee to the same or similar position in the school system.
4. During the leave, the employee will accrue leave benefits, experience credit and will be considered an active employee for purpose of all benefits including group health insurance.
J. Compassionate Leave Bank
The compassionate leave bank exists so employees may donate payout of sick leave days for use by eligible employees who need extended time off due to a catastrophic, serious health condition of a member of the employee's immediate family, residing within the employee's household, for whom the employee is the primary caregiver. Immediate family shall be defined as husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, first cousin, niece, nephew, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, stepson, stepdaughter, half brother or half sister. The employee must exhaust all applicable paid leave prior to application to the compassionate leave bank. Funds generated from the payout of donated sick leave shall be deposited into the compassionate leave bank.
A. Compassionate leave may be granted for catastrophic events including serious injury or illness of someone in the immediate family. Normal pregnancy, common illness, illness or injury covered by Workers' Compensation, mental or nervous conditions, chemical dependency, alcoholism or related conditions' are not eligible for compassionate leave.
B. Sick leave payout is available for donors wishing to voluntarily contribute a designated number of days to the compassionate leave bank. Donors may specify the individual who will be the recipient of these days.
1. A donor may authorize a deposit of the value of unused sick leave earned into the compassionate leave bank by completion of the appropriate form. The leave payout shall be based on the current daily rate of pay of the employee multiplied by eighty percent (80%) of the value of the day.
2. The amount of days contributed by anyone donor may not exceed five (5) days per year.
3. Employees who wish to donate to the Compassionate Leave Bank must hold at least thirty (30) days of accrued sick leave as of the last duty day and have used no more than six (6) of their ten (10) days of accrued sick/personal leave during the year.
4. Days for which such payment is deposited shall be deducted from the employee's accumulated leave balance. The payout for the accumulated leave and deposit into the bank shall be reflected on the employee's paycheck stub.
5. Unused leave shall not be kept by the recipient or returned to the donor but will be retained in the bank.

C. Employees receiving or donating compassionate leave bank days shall be responsible for their respective taxes arising from this transaction.
D. While using compassionate leave, the employee will not accrue annual or sick leave.
E. An overview committee will be formed to review administration of the bank and determine disputed eligibility. MCEA shall have representation and voting rights equal to other groups represented on this committee.