POSITION STATEMENT

S-2220 (Sarlo)

SEEKING AMENDMENTS

(Limits certain unused sick leave pay and vacation leave carry-forward for school and local employees; permits local unit to pay certain benefits over 10 years; limits sick leave use by new public employees before retirement.)

The New Jersey School Boards Association, a federation of the state’s district boards of education, welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on S-2220. The bill limits certain unused sick leave pay and vacation leave carry-forward for school and local employees, permits local units to pay certain benefits over 10 years, and requires sick leave use by new public employees to the period before retirement.

Dwindling resources require school boards to find savings that can be devoted to the core instructional program. S-2220 gives boards a mechanism for doing just that by reducing certain payouts at retirement for school board employees.

S-2220 sets sick leave pay-out at $15,000, bringing school district employee contracts in line with those of state workers. There are, however, many school district contracts already in force where maximum sick leave pay out provisions are considerably less than that amount. Therefore, we ask consideration of language that recognizes these instances by specifying that “supplemental compensation shall not exceed $15,000, or whatever amount is specified in the current contract.”

We also have several suggestions to make the bill more clear and comprehensive.

Among them is applying the $15,000 maximum amount to school districts with employees who are covered by civil service to ensure that the retirement payouts for these staff members are addressed by this legislation.

We also recommend that local boards of education have the same 10-year timeline as municipalities in meeting their financial obligation to retirees for contractually required severance liabilities. Extending this timeline to local boards of education would provide significant help in balancing their finances to meet their contractual and programmatic responsibilities.

NJSBA does have a concern about the sections that deal with fines and penalties for misuse of sick leave days in the 12 months prior to retirement. That concern involves the likelihood that an employee would file a claim of violation of his or her tenure rights based on the imposition of a fine. We believe that insertion of the following language would avert that possibility: “notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a school district may issue these fines without violating employee tenure laws.”

We respectfully request your consideration in including that language at the end of the section.

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss Senate Bill 2220. NJSBA views the legislation as critical in the economic environment in which local boards of education must operate today.