School Board reviews policies; Up for public perusal

Community, Dragon's Corner

More than 35 policies were recently reviewed and revised by the Pickens County Board of Education in an ongoing attempt to keep the district abreast of current issues and to strategically improve schools. The policy review was an objective the board set for themselves during a recent self-assessment.Teaming with school board policy specialists law firm Harben, Hartley & Hawkins, the board made numerous small changes, mostly in wording and to bring policies abreast of state policy.

Perry said,

“We want our community members and stakeholders in the community to have an opportunity to take a look at these (before they’re approved).”

One policy of note is regarding employee leaves and absences, GARH (previously GRBI). It will now state “Each employee of the Pickens County Board of Education may earn sick leave, with full pay, on the basis of one and one-fourth (1 ¼) days for each completed month of service. All unused sick leave shall be carried over from one fiscal year to the next. Sick leave accumulated by certificated or administrative employees and bus drivers is transferable from one school system to another school system, up to a maximum of 45 days.”

Employees have contacted the administration regarding the wording of accumulated sick leave and the 45 day “limit”. Chief Financial Officer Amy Smith advised the board they are not changing the current policy, that you may accumulate as many sick days as you want but you cannot be paid for those days. The policies of the Teachers’ Retirement System allow for unlimited amounts of sick days to be counted towards retirement. Also, if an employee transfers to another district their policies may differ as well.

The accumulation issue expanded as board members sought to clarify the policy and actual practices. While the policy states one may earn 1 ¼ days per month worked, upon receipt of their first paycheck employees show a total of 12 days earned when they haven’t earned those days, but it’s set static in the system that way until they move past that mark.

“That gives them a false reading, to employees, like if you come on day one and you look at your check it says you’ve got 12 days,”

said board member Peggy Andrews. Any leave must be approved by principals so if the employee hasn’t earned that time they should be notified they will be docked for that absence. But with the appearance of the leave on the check, the board worried that what’s in practice and what’s on paper may cause confusion. Board Attorney Phil Landrum and Member Byron Long agreed with Andrews.

“I just have a problem voting for a policy we might not be following,”

she stated.

Smith offered a resolution which has been discussed but not implemented in the past to either post the appropriate days on the check or remove that section all-together. Due to dual record-keeping both at the administrative offices and at each school, the employee may always have an outlet by which to check how many days they have. However, programming complications in both cases makes taking action on the problem immediately an impossibility.

This policy was also amended to include step-family in the medical and related absence section as well as the bereavement leave policy wording changed from “relative” to “immediate family.” In explanation Smith reported the change in wording was to bring it in-line with state policy but there aren’t any tangible changes.

Another area of concern is the personal leave policy. As Smith explained, taking “personal leave” deducts from your sick days so if you have used all your sick days you do not have any leave left to take. That wasn’t explicitly stated in the previous policy but is in the new one.

Wording tweaks and other small changes in various policies were also discussed. All proposed policy changes may be viewed at

Board Policy Review

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