In the last round of bargaining, SDEA and SDUSD’s bargaining teams agreed to some changes in Article 10, Leaves, in the union contract, which impact the dates by which SDEA bargaining unit members need to submit requests for leave. These changes also impact when unit members need to indicate they intend to return from long-term unpaid leave at the start of the subsequent school year.
Beginning in the 2023 – 2024 school year, Category I long-term unpaid leave requests need to be submitted by January 1, 2024 for leaves anticipated to commence at the start of the 2024 – 2025 school year.
Category 1 long-term leaves are those leaves for professional study, travel, opportunity, service to other public organizations, service to professional organizations, and other leaves determined by the superintendent.
These rules do not apply to leaves under Category II, such as health or home responsibility leaves, or under Category 3, such as military leaves; more information on these leaves can be found in Sections 10.7 and 10.8 in the contract.
Unit members on Category I long-term leaves must notify the Human Resource Services Division on or before January 1 of each year of the leave as to their intention either to extend the leave for another school year (if eligible), to return to paid service at the beginning of the next school year, or to resign from the District.
See Section 10.6 in the union contract for more information on these types of leaves.