Return from Extended Leave of Absence. (RELA) A RELA teacher is one who has been on leave of absence from his/her school for more than two semesters or a special program area teacher holding no additional secondary certification on leave of absence from his her school for more than four semesters and is no longer automatically reassigned to the same unit from which s/he took his/her leave. A RELA teacher will be placed on the reassignment list.
Return from Extended Leave of Absence. Approval to return from extended leave must be secured in advance of the requested date of return. Requests should be in written form and directed to the Superintendent. Requests to return from extended leaves for personal illness, automatic leaves, or temporary disability must provide a physician's release to return to work, stating that the employee has sufficiently recovered to resume normal duties. Requests to return from extended leave for study should be accompanied by an official transcript showing successful completion of 20 hours of college credit during a year's leave or showing such courses in progress. If a request for return or for the extension of an extended leave of absence has not been submitted in writing to the Superintendent prior to April 25 each year, the leave of absence will lapse and the individual will be deemed to have been resigned. No credit for time missed while on a leave of absence will be given. Upon return the teacher will begin at the same step for which he/she qualified before the leave. It will be permissible for an employee who is on a leave of absence to stay with the school health insurance group if he/she so desires. The employee will be responsible for all premiums due and will not be eligible for fringe benefit payments from the school during the leave of absence.
Return from Extended Leave of Absence. Unit I Members returning from authorized leave will be placed in active pay status upon the first day they are eligible to return to work as long as they provided written notice of their return to work date to the Division of Human Resources at least ten (10) workdays prior to such return-to-work date. Return to work must be approved by Absence Management. Upon placement in active pay status, if no permanent assignment is available in their area of certification, Unit I members will be assigned to their current school/work location or department as an over hire until a permanent assignment in the area of certification becomes available. Unit I members will be placed in the first available permanent assignment in their area of certification for the remainder of that duty year.
