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Loudoun County School Board, Human Resources and Talent Development (HRTD) Committee Meeting, Thursday, May 25, 2023

Date: Thursday, May 25, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 52m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/830384564?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:03] - I am here to speak tonight about the HRTD policy that will allow principals to tell us we need to work when they want us to work beyond set hours. Some of you are not opposed to having masters, but I am.

[00:00:23] And I had one principal who required us to attend two after school activities a quarter. I like children and my students, but this is my job. And my daughter had activities I wanted to attend and will end up working to a principal's whim.

[00:00:46] I would also like you to consider, would you have a policy like this if teaching were male-dominated? Oh, look, more masters. I don't believe you would have this policy if teaching were mostly men because it's just women.

[00:01:10] you're trying to get away with it um thank you black lives matter good evening i'm addressing the committee today about the potential revisions to policy 70 30 staff time schedules there must be a way that workloads programs and expectations be manageable and reasonable managed in a way that would not lead to policy which already makes it clear that teachers can be expected to work beyond their work days for many reasons potentially being revised to make additional time and work allowable

[00:01:46] it is true that teachers are exempt employees it's also true that more than it is also true that more that can be reasonably expected to be accomplished in a work day on a regular basis is the current norm when will piling on educators current and potentially future schedules end thank you the next item is related to the minutes do i have a motion to approve the minutes from the month of

[00:02:19] april i move to approve the minutes from the april 27 2023 meeting second thank you all those in favor of approving the minutes from april please raise your hand and say aye aye i i would like to actually move item four to after item six um item six this evening is a discussion item to for presentation on workers compensation and given that policy 7640 is related to workers

[00:02:54] compensation i'd like to have the benefit of seeing that presentation first or actually we can see the presentation first we're moving six before four thank you yes so sorry please move forward with the presentation on workers compensation so you want us to do the presentation first because i thought i heard you say you wanted to move the action item down so we're happy to do either we just want the presentation before presentation so i thought we were getting ready to do the the presentation. It's just sitting in wait. Do you want to do the presentation now? Let's go ahead

[00:03:32] with the presentation. Let's do it. So I'm going to turn things over to HRTD Director Jeanette Evans, and she's going to share a whole lot of info about workers' compensation. All right. Thank you all very much. I just wanted to share after our meeting last month, and before we look at the policy again, I wanted to share some information with you all about our workers' compensation program. So workers' compensation covers all employees, full-time, part-time, coaches, etc., who have an injury that arises out of and in the course of their employment. Not every injury that

[00:04:09] occurs in the workplace is a workers' comp injury. LCPS provides a panel of physicians from whom an employee can seek treatment under workers' comp. That's not to say that if an employee needs to seek treatment at an emergency room or urgent care that it will not be covered. However, in those cases where a panel provider is not accessible or it is a non-emergent circumstance, a panel physician must be consulted. For those who see an off-panel provider, an emergency room, an urgent care that's not on the list, any referral or follow-up care has to go through the panel physician. So they can go to the emergency room, they can go to urgent care,

[00:04:49] whatever they need to do. But any follow-up care, refer to a specialist, etc., has to go through that panel physician so they will have to choose a panel physician off of the list. LCPS has a third-party administrator, PMA Companies, who manages the care and administration of our workers comp claims. PMA maintains a list of qualified specialists for any employee who is referred to a specialist for follow-up care. Next slide. There are three types of claims. There's lost time, there's medical only, and there's record only. Employees who have an approved workplace injury

[00:05:25] are eligible for lifetime medical treatment for that injury. It doesn't matter if it's medical only or if they had actually missed time for it. If the injury, 10 years later, they have an issue related to the injury, it's still going to be covered under workers' compensation.

[00:05:43] Employees who missed time due to an improved workers' comp injury receive 66 and two-thirds of their pay, and that's Code of Virginia. This is paid directly to the employee, and it is non-taxable, so it works out pretty close to their regular pay. In Virginia, there is a maximum 10-year period for that lost time payment.

[00:06:03] The majority of injuries that occur at LCPS do not require an employee to miss time from work. Next slide. So in order to compare apples to apples, we reviewed workers' compensation claims from July 1 to April 30 for FY19, FY22, and FY23.

[00:06:24] We did not utilize 20 or 21 due to the pandemic. Those numbers are not indicative. So in comparing these three years, there's a total difference of 30 claims between the highest number to the lowest number.

[00:06:42] And when we looked further, we see that the biggest difference was in the FY22 lost time claims. After we reviewed the claims and spoke with our third-party administrator, it appears that a lot of the lost time was related to slips and falls or struck by claims, which are our highest claims overall.

[00:07:00] In FY23, having been back in the classroom for a year, back in the buildings for a year, our claims have, lost time claims have decreased as everybody adjusted to making sure that when you walk by the water fountain, you don't walk through the water or, you know, if the kids are out playing basketball that you don't stand on the court, for example. Our top three categories for claims are struck or injured by, slips and falls, and strains. We work with special education, support services to minimize those injuries as much as possible providing

[00:07:37] safety equipment where identified including special non-slip shoes to be used when waxing floors cleats for winter safety or non-slip shoes for custodial staff next slide so the next two slides were provided by PMA companies they compared seven public educational institutions in their book of business to each other they're all Virginia school systems as a percent of payroll on workers comp claims lcps is line f and if you look at the chart it's hard to see from here

[00:08:12] but line f is well below the average number of claims and in fact well below everybody's claims this information is aggregated based on millions of dollars of payroll so they base their calculations on on that they this report is through fy21 they'll be updating it in august of 23 approximately and our lost time and medical only claims are significantly lower than anybody else's i'm hopeful that that's going to be the same when we go look at fy22 data

[00:08:50] in this slide the next one our last time claims per earned payroll is below the average so the average is skewed because you see that big jump up there that's not us but that is during 2020 as part of the pandemic. So those numbers are a little bit skewed, but even with that, LCPS is at or near the same level as our competitors. So what do these numbers mean? They show that LCPS is doing a good job of keeping our rate of injuries low, and when someone is injured, we are providing timely and

[00:09:27] successful treatment and getting our employees back to health as quickly as possible. Next slide. When an employee is injured, it is really important to us to ensure that they receive prompt treatment at the highest possible level of care and expertise.

[00:09:47] PMA Companies provides any employee who needs specialist care with a list of providers from whom to choose. Not every provider is equal, and PMA works with providers that have successful and proven results for employees. If an employee is not able to transport themselves to an appointment, PMA will work with them to provide transportation.

[00:10:07] Employees can also report mileage to PMA and get reimbursed for attending care appointments. In some cases, PMA provides a field case manager or a nurse case manager to assist the employee. This individual will attend appointments with the employee, with the employee's permission, to ensure that the employee is receiving appropriate care and any treatments or additional care is fully documented, gets the information to PMA a little bit quicker, and takes the stress off the employee having to make sure that all the forms are sent to the appropriate locations.

[00:10:43] Next slide. HRTD's leave and disability programs team works with employees and across departments to ensure that we are providing the best possible use of resources to support our employees and allow them to perform their jobs safely.

[00:10:59] In addition, when a significant injury occurs, we work in collaboration with the support services OSHA team to ensure that a full investigation is done and and make changes if needed for employee safety. Any employee who is injured at the workplace receives an email on the day that the claim is reported.

[00:11:17] Included in that email is a handbook in both English and Spanish. The email is in English and Spanish. That provides a checklist as one of the very first things they see so they know exactly what they need to do. And then the handbook provides forms, information on how to fill prescriptions, contact information throughout that book.

[00:11:37] But at the very beginning, there is a checklist, so they know exactly what they need to do. The email also includes our workers' comp email address, the phone number to leave in Disability Programs Office, and a link to the form portal where they can send in any documentation that they've received from a provider.

[00:11:55] The email goes out in English and Spanish to try to accommodate as many of our Spanish-speaking employees as possible. So that's workers' compensation in a nutshell. If you all have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Any questions, Mr. Morse?

[00:12:13] Thank you, Madam Chair. How do we get feedback from our employees as to the quality of the service from, is it PMA? So generally speaking, if an employee is not happy, they will let us know.

[00:12:30] They're on the phone to us pretty quickly. We have not surveyed employees in the past. We do have, an employee has the right to file a case with a challenge with the commission if they don't believe that their care is appropriate.

[00:12:46] We have a very low caseload in front of the commission. Okay, so how are the employees made aware of that? Is that in the employee handbook? Do they have phone numbers and contact information? There's information in the handbook.

[00:13:02] The Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission sends them information as soon as the claim is filed. So they get it there, and then they also call our office and ask. We provide that information if somebody has an issue with something they think they should be treated for that they weren't treated for appropriately.

[00:13:19] We'll explain to them what the steps are that they need to take. And there is no consolidation of complaint data, either via PMA, via the state, or by LCPS? Not that I'm aware of, Mr. Mr. Beatty.

[00:13:39] Thank you, Chair. Going back to slide seven, so you talk about we're trying to provide a select group of providers to employees to provide proven care and results. Is there sort of, and I think you kind of were ripping on that, you said that we're trying to get successful results. What is sort of the definition of how would we consider something successful?

[00:13:59] That they come back to work or that they're just, that they don't file a case? So for us, successful is we get the employee back to where they were before they got injured. Okay, thank you. thank you I have a few questions on page five is this is this reflecting all claims filed or those that were processed and approved and move forward

[00:14:34] as a workers comp claim so in other words is our case rate low because we have low accident rates at work or is there is that has to do with the percent being approved no it's because we have low accident rates and that's why the percent slower okay great thank you my other questions so I know we'll move next to review the the edits to the policy but last month we had some

[00:15:07] discussion about the provider list and specifically for people who live further away and I understand that you've addressed part of that by indicating that transportation can be paid for and coordinated through PMA when I spoke with Ms. Bolin about this as we were putting together the agenda for this month's meeting she did mention that there could be there are kind of regional lists for approved providers and we are in presumably the northern Virginia region for our list of approved providers but

[00:15:43] that there could be approved providers kind of in a different region if we're thinking about people who live west in West Virginia, for example, and I had asked if, with our plan, do we have access to that list, and can that be used for employees who it would be more convenient to see a provider, say, in West Virginia, for example.

[00:16:09] So, generally speaking, we would like employees to see providers in Virginia. However, you are correct. Sometimes employees, or even if they've retired and need to seek care, PMA is a national company. They have a national database of providers, and they can work with employees who need to have those providers closer to their home.

[00:16:31] It is really important, having done workers' comp for a while or watched it for a while, it's important that we send people to doctors that are going to provide good care, and they're not all created equal.

[00:16:51] and and sometimes an employee has a particular affinity for a certain provider but we have reason to not use that individual and that does happen and when it happens we have a conversation with the employee and explain why we can have pma work with them to find a different provider we don't want to tell people no but we also want to make sure they're getting best care that we can get. And would it be accurate to say that providers on the PMA list are not the providers that you

[00:17:24] would be concerned about because there is trust that PMA has well-qualified providers? Yes. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Morse? Actually, this is getting to the action item, so I'll hold off until we do the read the motion. Okay, so we'll move forward to now action item

[00:17:52] related to HRTD policy 7640 for workers compensation is there a motion I move that the HRTD committee accept the revisions to policy 7640 workers compensation and move to the full school board on June 13th 2023 is there a second second any discussion just one I noticed in the comments that we received the recommendation to put under line 23 date of occurrence of an

[00:18:30] accident or illness is there is there a reason why we would not add the word or illness words I actually have that in my notes to address we got the comments after that was already sent down absolutely I agree illness should be added so committee members I would like to modify the language I could do it Either as a motion or we could just accept it, just to add the or illness on line 23, following an accident.

[00:19:05] Yeah, or illness. I'm fine with that. Any other? Okay. So I'll return to this item that we talked about last time as well.

[00:19:20] So in Section C for approved physicians, I understand everything that you've said in terms of wanting to make sure that we're using that list.

[00:19:46] But it sounds like from that list, from this national list where maybe our local list may not be as exhaustive, but PMA itself has a broader list, that we could put language in here that says, and especially for the example also of a retiree, for example, because this is a lifetime benefit, to recognize in this language an adjustment that would indicate

[00:20:13] that if the employee or former employee isn't in the Northern Virginia area, for example, I would look to you for suggestions on language that they should be in touch with HRTD to identify an approved PMA provider that's closer to them, for example.

[00:20:41] So the approved physicians list comments here are specifically related to the initial injury. Once you've seen the panel provider and been referred to a specialist, that specialist becomes your provider of record for workers' compensation, and that's where you would talk to PMA to get an alternate.

[00:21:06] But an employee who's injured at the work site, our panel is throughout Loudoun County and into Berryville and West Virginia for our employees that live in those areas. That's just for the initial treatment.

[00:21:21] After that, yes, PMA will work with them to help find a specialist. Okay, that's helpful, and that does address my concern. Any other comments? Yes, Mr. Marston.

[00:21:37] Madam Chair, to make this a little bit more clear, we could say on line 29. Wait a minute. Let me make sure I'm looking at the correct copy here.

[00:21:56] So on line 32, where it says the injured or ill employee must be attended, we could insert the word initially attended, Because what we were talking about is only the initial assessment has to be done by a PMA-qualified or recognized physician.

[00:22:15] Does that give staff any heartburn if we put that initially in front of it? I think that addresses that. Okay. So based on discussion, we have two small changes on line 23.

[00:22:33] After the word accident, we will be inserting or illness. And then on line 32, the injured or ill employee must be adding the word initially before attended. And with that, all those in favor of moving the policy forward as discussed for action or for information with the full school board, please raise your hand and say aye.

[00:23:05] That motion passes unanimously. Okay, so moving on to the information items, starting with policy 70-30, staff time schedules.

[00:23:23] All right, so I'm going to turn this item over to HRTD Director Nicole Davis to talk through our proposed edits. All right, good evening. So for policy 70-30 staff time schedules, the majority of the language updates were to reflect practice or current title changes, such as salary scales, removing references to the professional administrator salary scale, and then referring to the universal salary scale.

[00:23:54] Another language change throughout the policy was replacing standard workweek to defined workweek because previous policy had both terms utilized, so we wanted to have it remain consistent throughout the policy. So to address some specific changes, lines 15 through 17, and I'm working off the redlined version, section A2 was deleted from the general statement and incorporated into each specific section for which it applies, specifically sections 3C, 4C, and 5C.

[00:24:31] Can you slow down a little bit? I can. Okay, so going back to under time schedules, you removed the language about attendance and at meetings and training programs, and you're saying you then incorporated that into the sections below?

[00:24:51] Into the sections, yes, which they specifically applied. So, for example, Section 3C, lines 48 through 52, it's addressed in teacher salary scale. It's also addressed in specifically the auxiliary.

[00:25:08] salary scale so 4c lines 70 through 73 so we just incorporated it into each specific section for which it applied rather than having it under the general section above do you have any specific questions on that or do you want me to continue from the um you can continue and then i'm sure we'll have questions at the end thank you so additional language was also added to section b

[00:25:46] overtime procedures and this is page three starting at line 122. This was to strengthen timekeeping requirements and outline expectations and responsibilities for staff regarding time approvals. Language was added as a recommendation from payroll based upon current trends that they were seeing when reviewing time cards as well as frequent questions received from staff and

[00:26:15] administrators. Moving on to section C, record keeping requirements. Similar to section B for overtime procedures, if we're referring starting on line 176, language was added to clarify the expectations of employees submitting time. This includes outlining expectations for exempt employees, taking leave, consequences of falsifying time cards, and the supervisor's

[00:26:49] responsibilities when reviewing time cards. Again, these additions were recommended in collaboration with payroll based on trends and questions that they had been receiving. So with that, I'm open

[00:27:03] to questions.

[00:27:30] Questions? Yes, Mr. Beatty. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Well, on line three, the remote work requirements, this just brings to mind something we talked about the audit committee about a telework policy. Is that something that HRTD is working on or is that in policy anywhere?

[00:27:48] Yes, so that's in the accompanying regulation. And so we had added language to that that would allow and clarify remote work expectations for licensed employees, which were previously not included in that regulation. Great, because that was a concern.

[00:28:03] And then regarding this policy, the Section 3 in line 180 through 181, are there no situations where someone else might have the need to fill out someone else's time card? Or is that just never going to happen now into this policy? So that could happen if an employee was out on leave or was unexpectedly not available to, but then we would work with payroll and the supervisor to ensure that that was done appropriately and with approval, of course. Okay. All right. Thank you. Mr. Morse.

[00:28:36] Thank you, Madam Chair. Line 46, where we inserted, we're talking about non-exempt. No, I'm sorry. We're talking about exempt employees, I believe, correct? Correct. Okay. So, because they're the only ones that can, other employees.

[00:29:01] Okay, so it reads, other employees in this category may be assigned different work hours as established by their supervisors or as specified by contract. Previously, the language established by their supervisors was not there. Is this written in anticipation that the assignment would change and that they would not issue a new contract?

[00:29:27] Excuse me, not specifically the assignment changing, but the established work hours in terms of to support Section C or working potentially outside of the standard seven to seven-and-a-half-hour contract day, depending upon their contract. So it was really added in there that although your contract might not say that we need you for an hour or two hours additional a night on occasion to support or to attend staff meetings or outside of the normal workday events, your supervisor can notify you that you're needed for that particular time.

[00:30:00] Do our contracts for the exempt employees capture the fact that they may be requested to work additional hours? Is that written anywhere in their contract? I would have to look at a contract to determine if it does or not.

[00:30:17] Off the top of my head, I'm not certain. Because I think that would be important if there were situations. I'm not saying there would be a daily occurrence, but if there is any occurrence, we should be able to provide the employee that information in their contract. And it doesn't have to identify the reason.

[00:30:34] They could say in unusual circumstances or extreme circumstances or some language such that it would be at least specified in the contract so that they would be aware of it. The second question I have is concerning line 124. Again, we're talking about scheduling overtime, and we're changing the language from asking an employee to scheduling or permitting an employee.

[00:31:01] Is overtime, I would imagine overtime is requested from the employees. We are still asking the employees, correct? That is correct. There may be certain circumstances in such like the facilities or maintenance department on snow or extenuating circumstances, but we do ask employees, yes.

[00:31:21] I think this change kind of implies that we're no longer asking them, but we're scheduling and permitting them to work overtime. So I would like to see if we could sharpen up the language, which continues to indicate that we do ask them.

[00:31:36] Now, there are exceptions, and I understand that, but the clearer we are in the instruction and the contract language, the less surprises we have and the less the employees are surprised. I think we need to make sure that they understand the expectations.

[00:31:54] Finally, is there anything in here that defines additional hours as more unique exceptions and not the standard? Because what I heard during public comment is that there are principals that will use that as a standard after hours training or, you know, some kind of school event that is standardized.

[00:32:25] And I think what we're trying to do is steer away from standardized outside of the regular work hours. So is there anything in here that provides somewhat of a limitation? I would not want an employee to be faced with a situation in which they're expected to be there three days a week for an extra hour for bus service or whatever other reasons might be created.

[00:32:52] So within this policy, there's not specifics, but I do know that there's guidance provided such as like the Department of Instruction that sets those guidelines out. And then we do work with supervisors and administrators when questions arise or when staff have concerns to kind of guide them to know that that shouldn't be a daily occurrence or a frequent occurrence for them to be scheduling those items.

[00:33:13] How do the employees relay that back to their leadership chain that it's becoming more, you know, obtrusive than it should be, that they are being requested to stay multiple times a week or, you know, in different situations?

[00:33:33] How can they, how are they made aware of what they are, you know, how they can report that? Because it's important for them to understand that these are supposed to be limits and we need to protect those limits. Well, I do know that we, not frequently, but we have received complaints through the complaint process or, again, if it's escalated up through their administration or principals or at principal committee meetings and those types of things with that information.

[00:34:01] I don't know if there's any other avenues. Well, to go back to your first question, I would look at lines, the section for lines 48 through 53 because that kind of sets the stage for what's expected.

[00:34:16] it's in order to ensure the proper functioning of the schools so really this this shouldn't be I'm expecting you to stay after school two hours every day to help with bus duty like there should be something that's reasonable I'm staying after for a faculty meeting I've got a certain committee meeting our office certainly hears from teachers when principals or schools do push too much so some of their chain could be reaching out to us for support it can be saying to their principal this seems like a lot this seems like a higher expectation so I think it's making sure employees

[00:34:53] are advocating for themselves but really it should be rooted in the functioning of the school this is what's best for kids to function into the school not just a principal that wants teachers to work extended hours or longer hours when I look at those lines 52 and 53 what I see are predictable work that makes it sound like that's not an exception it is now that if if you're having team planning all the team planning could happen after hours because that considered proper

[00:35:28] functioning of the school all the staff development could happen after hours so i i just think that they are somewhere within the the regulation or someplace we need to better define what that expectation is because functioning of schools is a very broad category and those two those would be ones i would not capture in an exception case it sounds more like the rule than the exception it sounds like oh well these are things that are going to happen every month outside of hours and now the expectation is that planning and staff development can all occur after hours i think

[00:36:05] we're trying to make it an exception and not a list of things that are going to occur so i i would agree with mr morse's comments i think also from from my prior experience and to his point

[00:36:22] Over time, we need to ask employees to work overtime, and it's not something that we can typically, in my experience, where I can say you have to work overtime unless they're in a position which, as you'd mentioned, for example, facilities where they're expected during a snow emergency, for example, you're on call and expected to work because you are, and I'm losing the word,

[00:36:56] but it is essential so if you're in essential services then you then you would expect that if there's an emergency you need to come in for a teacher especially who has a contract this seems to erode what is in the contract and I think we do need to understand what is in the contract with regard to additional hours to make sure that that's consistent with policy that we're looking at if there is an adjustment you know that contract constitutes what a teacher expects to their work

[00:37:32] week and their schedule to be and while there may be adjustments to staff schedules i think i would agree i think that much of the wording of the changes here make it um there are not limits that are clear and and it could be that this that we would end up taking advantage of staff and not kind of respecting the what we had put in place through contracts so i what i would like to see is coming back and if others agree for our next meeting to see that contract language and then

[00:38:12] also clarification i think that it's it is not sufficient in my mind to have guidelines from department of instruction for expectations on frequency that we do have to have expectations across the board for school-based admin that's codified someplace whether that's in policy or regulation we just need to make sure that this is clearly not giving carte blanche permission to

[00:38:40] extend hours anything else mr. Morse I did want to point out that in normal labor law and other other environments, exempt employees are typically not subject to as much after hours work, although they are compensated, than a non-exempt employee, where the expectation is that a non-exempt employee, that there will be situations that they should anticipate. And, you know, it might be once a month

[00:39:18] a staff development or something like that. So there is a difference between the classification of the employees, a non-exempt typically is not as restrictive as an exempt employee for the overtime.

[00:39:34] Any additional comments or questions? Okay. Thank you. So if you can come back next month with that. Moving on to the next item is policy 7717, organ and bone marrow donation leave.

[00:39:50] I'd actually like to ask for a suspension of the rules. is a state requirement to have this policy in place I believe by August what's the date July 1 by July so we do actually have to after review what I'd like to do is suspend the rules and have a motion to move this forward to the full board so I would like to move that policy 77 that the go ahead do you have

[00:40:28] a motion? Yes. No, the first motion is I move to suspend the rules. Okay. I move to suspend the rules. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor of suspending the rules, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. The motion to suspend the rules has passed, and is there a motion related to the policy 77-17? I move that the HRTD committee approve new policy 77-17, organ and bone marrow donation leave and move to the full school board for consideration thank you second all those and well let's let's hear the let's hear about this policy thank you all right so i'm going to turn

[00:41:07] it back over to miss evans again to go over this new policy thank you so uh 77 policy 77 17 is a new policy based on a law passed by the virginia legislature with a july 1 2023 effective date. Under this law, employers must provide 12 weeks, 60 days of unpaid job and benefit protection for an employee who is donating an organ, and 6 weeks or 30 days of unpaid job and benefits protection for an employee who is donating bone marrow. On lines 14 and

[00:41:41] 15, we provide the eligibility requirements for protection under this policy that the employee has to have been employed for 12 consecutive months from the first date of absence on line 17 through 23 we explain that the employee taking this leave is eligible for restoration to the position that they left or an equivalent position including equivalent pay benefits and other terms and conditions of employment we also have the right to deny an employee restoration of employment because of conditions that are unrelated to the employee using this leave we document here that the employee benefit premiums will accrue during

[00:42:21] the absence if no pay is available from which to take these deductions upon return to pay the employee will be required to pay any missed premiums on lines 25 through 33 we outline that employees may use any accrued leave apply for short-term disability and/or LCPS's paid leave program line 30 lines 37 through 29 we are confirming that this is not considered a break in service from LCPS. Lines 43-50, we outline the requirements for documentation of the need

[00:42:57] for leave and the HRD team to whom the documentation should be submitted. Lines 52-55, we outline the requirements for what we need for return to work documentation. And lines 57-58, we confirm that the employee and supervisor will receive confirmation of the approved leave dates. The outline of the rules of the program, with the exception of the pay piece, are taken

[00:43:28] directly from the law that was passed. I'm happy to answer any questions. Mr. Morse? Thank you. You mentioned that the pay premiums during the absence, they would not be paying them, but they would be required to make up those pay premiums when they returned. Is that what I heard?

[00:43:52] If they do not have pay, then the deductions aren't taken. They have to make them up when they return are they eligible for services during that period if they're not if they're unpaid yes so they're eligible they continue to accrue their vrs benefits etc um and i did not say this and i'm sorry i should have line 10 and 11 this leave does not count towards their their fmla so an employee who donates and then has an issue later on in the year still has fmla eligibility on line 35 it says this leave may be taken in any 12 month period why do we have that in there I mean I would assume

[00:44:30] that this should occur in the period when they are donating or receiving the donation it is in there because it's in the the law that way what I wanted to be careful of is I don't want to have somebody who who says I'm going to donate a kidney and then I'm going to donate bone marrow and then I'm going to and just keep rolling it so we want to make sure that people don't exhaust their bodies I guess that's the way they wrote that wouldn't I is this language exactly what's required or is this language addressing a concern because the language just make it doesn't talk about doing

[00:45:09] two donations in a 12-month period it could say that we could change the language to say donations only want this can be used only once in any 12-month period is that what we were trying to get to this was taken exactly out of the code I someone needs to help I would like to but it was taken out of the code and and reading this then i mean i would say there could be a case where there's a valid medical reason to either receive or well this is the donating part of it but to donate multiple times in which case there could be multiple leads there's nothing

[00:45:48] here that says is this per incident or this is just it's it's not clear that it is the way it was written the way I interpret that and and I did run this through our legal counsel believe may be taken in any 12-month period but it's if you take it in December you can't take it again in June you have to can't take until the

[00:46:18] December the following December on line 23 where it says the employee benefit premiums will accrue during this leave if no payment is available through payroll deduction is there any stipulation as to when they would then need to make payment once they were back on payroll so hopefully we're not deducting all of their premiums from their first paycheck so we do have a limit when we have an employee who's out in a leave without pay situation and

[00:46:55] they do not have premiums taken out there's a limit I believe it is the maximum the maximum limit is the point of service family plan premium amount is the maximum that could come out of somebody's check in addition to whatever else they would normally have taken out and would that be something worth putting in the policy for clarification just so that it's clear how the so we're saying that you can accrue it but we're not we're not addressing how you then

[00:47:28] pay it back. We could say, and upon resumption of payroll, it would be deducted not to exceed the whatever referenced amount was. Not a dollar amount, but that type of premium that you mentioned, the family plan premium. We can do that. But when premiums change or if the plan changes, then you have to change this policy. That's my concern.

[00:47:58] Okay. Mr. Morse. Madam Chair, that's what I was going to say. I was going to say this is probably something we should put in the regulation or or the employee handbook something else I don't think we want to dive that deep in a policy okay I respect that I think it would be helpful though to have that somewhere for employees to understand that any other questions okay all those in favor of moving this forward as suggested for full board consideration please raise your hand and say I I that

[00:48:33] That motion will pass unanimously with all committee members present. Item 5.03, policy 7726, military leave.

[00:48:51] Is there a motion? Or sorry, this is an information item. My apologies. I'm so used to making motions now. But if you can address military leave updates please, thank you. So this is the evening for HRTD Director Jeanette Evans.

[00:49:08] So this is her continued show with this military leave policy. So the military leave policy was time for it to be reviewed and renewed and updated. The only thing that we needed to update in the policy was to include the FEMA personnel as eligible for military leave, and that's consistent with the state military leave policy.

[00:49:36] And then we did add all of the code references regarding military leave. Any questions? Okay. Thank you.

[00:49:52] I'd like to just returning back to policy 7030, when will that be posted for public comment? So what is your intent with 7030?

[00:50:11] Do you want us to bring back more information as an information item next week? or we, specific to 70-30, I thought I heard a lot more questions before we would post it. Yes, so we did, and for next month. So we said that we would come back with the language from the contracts.

[00:50:28] So we'll bring it back with more information. We'll bring it back as information again. Yep, and then we'll post it. And we'll go over that, okay. And this one, I think we need a motion to move, I don't know, do we need a motion to move it to action at the next committee meeting, the other, the military leave one? So, and I skipped that, so we'll come back to that.

[00:50:48] yes we'll we'll bring that back we'll bring military leave back for action so we'll want to post that so that that'll get posted for public comment in the next week or so and then we'll bring back the public comment and that policy as it is now we'll bring back 70 30 has information again with additional information that you've requested and then the other one the other two will both go to the next school board meeting the first meeting in june 7717 will go to the

[00:51:23] school board 77 to six will come back here as an action item okay correct yeah okay thank you any new business okay with that we are adjourned thank you

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