Hardship Option. Teachers who experience extreme hardship circumstances (serious long-term illness, injury, medical trauma), personally (self, spouse and children), and who have exhausted all applicable leave-of-absence time available to them, may apply for personal leave time to be donated by other covered teachers. The request, with information pertaining to the need and the number of days requested, will be made to the superintendent (or designee). The superintendent will pass the appropriate request on to the catastrophic leave committee. The committee will consider each request and determine if the situation merits approval for donated personal leave. Appropriate requests, with all appropriate factors relating to the need, will then be communicated by the DREA to the teachers covered by this Agreement. Willing teachers may donate one or two personal leave days and/or no more than one sick leave day credited to them by completing a form available from the business office. These non- returnable donations may be in one-half or full day amounts and may not exceed three days annually. All information on the origin of donated days will be kept confidential. The Association will be kept informed by the business manager (or designee), as to the amount of time donated and the leave status of the teachers who have qualified for donated days. If donated personal leave days are not sufficient to meet the needs of the affected teacher(s) after the first request for donations, additional requests for days may be communicated by the Association. Forms for donation of personal leave days should be sent to the business office within ten (10) working days after each request. A maximum of three requests for donation of personal leave days may be made per hardship occurrence. The maximum number of donated days that a teacher can request for a school year is thirty (30) days.
