Due to voters’ passage of Proposition 206 last November, the Arizona minimum wage increased to $10 in 2017 and by 2020 it will increase to $12. It also created a right to paid sick time off from employment, which changed school district requirements regarding time off. These actions necessitated changes in some policies of the Snowflake Unified School District, which were presented to the district governing board June 27.
Superintendent Hollis Merrell presented three policy revisions recommended by the Arizona School Boards Association.
The first relate to professional/support staff sick leave, and Merrell noted they had spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the recommendation.
He requested a legal opinion on this item, which came the day of the board meeting. The recommendation included many sample notices to include in employee packets, but the attorney felt that the district did not need to have all of them in its policy.
The board made changes to the sick leave policy, deleting how many days of sick leave would be granted each fiscal year and stating instead, “Sick leave for district personnel is a designated amount of compensated leave that is to be granted to a staff member who, through personal or family illness, injury or quarantine, is unable to perform the duties assigned.”
It further states that certificated employees and administrators will be granted 40 hours of sick leave at the beginning of the contract year and classified employees will accumulate sick leave at the rate of half a working day per month, beginning the first day of employment.
Any unused sick leave from the 40 hours granted will not carry over to the next fiscal year and will not be paid out to employees. Any unused personal or vacation time will carry over as sick leave.
The governing board held the first reading of a policy revision regarding professional/support staff paid time off. Merrell recommended a change from personal time to paid time off, but there were no changes to the amount of Prop. 206 funding to be paid.
The board also held the first reading of a policy revision on vacation leave. Merrell said that the only change that it will revert to loss on Dec. 31 rather than Aug. 31, and include two snow days that are on the calendar.
In other business, the governing board unanimously approved an additional full-time employee at the district office. The position was needed because of Prop. 206, the Affordable Care Act and other changes to several processes that affect the district.
The passage of Prop. 206 included changes to how the district will be calculating leave, explained Business Manager Mark Ollerton. He noted that some districts have hired a third party to handle the changes, and he calculated the cost would be approximately $14,000 a year in administrative fees.
Ollerton said that prior to budget reductions in 2008, the staffing at the district office included an additional 56 hours a week, which were cut for budgetary reasons, allocating the responsibilities to different departments in the office.
He said that this employee would assist in areas that were cut and centralize responsibilities.
“We will be adding responsibilities such as internal auditing, electronic debit and credit transactions, Prop. 206 leave for all employees, white fleet transportation, payroll and possible food service responsibilities. These are a few of the responsibilities that we will be expanding into this position,” according to a June 26 memo from Ollerton to Merrell.
“We want to cross-train the position so if a position opened they would have an experienced employee to fill it, said Ollerton.
The board unanimously approved the new full-time position.
