VACATION

Staff hired prior to 8/1//2009 should contact Human Resources if you have questions about your vacation accrual.

Staff Hired Post 8/1/2009 – other than teachers, clinicians and nurses

New hire – 6 months no vacation accrual
6 months – 1 year Accrue 1 week
1st Anniversary Accrue 2 weeks
4th Anniversary Accrue 3 weeks
6th Anniversary Accrue 4 weeks

Staff regularly scheduled 20 hours or more per week receive pro-rated vacation.

Teachers will receive 6 weeks of pre-scheduled vacation time off in accordance with the school calendar.

Clinicians and Nurses will accrue 3 weeks of vacation upon hire but are not allowed to use their time until completing 6 months of employment unless approved by Program Director/Manager. The vacation accrual will increase to 4 weeks on their 6th anniversary as indicated above.

Housatonic Academy Time Off Rules
The Housatonic Academy follows the Pittsfield Public School calendar with some modifications.
HA also has a summer program. Teachers have designated vacation time off per the Housatonic
Academy calendar, and do not accrue vacation or floating holiday hours.

All other staff at Housatonic Academy must use their vacation or floating holiday hours when they take time off. Staff will not accrue enough time off to be paid for all the scheduled vacation at HA, and are expected to either schedule hours at other campuses, or go unpaid, if they do not have enough benefit time to use that payperiod.. It is your responsibility to call the schedulers at the other campuses to book hours for the HA vacations. A list of schedulers and phone numbers is available from Human Resources, 499-7924.

Some Housatonic Academy professional and administrative positions are exempt from this requirement, since their duties continue even when students are not present.

Staff will not be allowed to take vacation time off other than at the HA scheduled vacation times, unless it is an emergency situation. Staff must have pre-approval from the Director, before scheduling vacation other than at HA vacation times.

Staff are expected to report for work when there are snow days. Since our students come from many school districts, not all schools close and we may have students at HA even if Pittsfield Public Schools are closed due to snow.

VACATION CARRYOVER

Staff are allowed to carry one week of vacation into the new Fiscal Year. Hours beyond one week will be forfeited on the date of vacation reduction (i.e., use it or lose it). The date of vacation reduction will vary from year to year depending on the payroll cycle. Staff will be notified in advance of the date of vacation reduction.

VACATION DONATION POLICY

Employees are allowed to donate accrued vacation hours to another staff if the donation is approved by the supervisor. If you choose to donate vacation hours to another staff, you must complete the Vacation Donation Form found on your campus or in Human Resources. Accrued sick time cannot be donated. It is important for staff to understand that the donation is nonrefundable. Completed forms should be returned to the Payroll Manager for processing.

SICK TIME (also see Attendance and Punctuality Standards)

Earned Sick Leave Policy

Accrual of Sick Leave

 All employees of Hillcrest Educational Center, Inc. (the “Company”) are eligible to accrue paid sick leave. Current eligible employees begin to accrue sick leave under this policy on July 1, 2015.  Thereafter, eligible employees begin to accrue sick leave on their first day of work and may begin using accrued leave after they have been employed for 90 days. Sick leave accrues at a rate of 1 hour per 30 hours worked.

Full-time salaried employees are presumed to work 40 hours per week for accrual purposes, unless their job specifies a lower number of hours per week. Employees can accrue a maximum of 40 hours of sick leave per benefit year. For purposes of sick leave, the benefit year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30.  Once an employee has accrued 40 hours of earned sick time during the benefit year, they do not continue to accrue more hours of earned sick time regardless of the additional hours they work. Sick leave is paid at the employee’s current regular pay rate, on the same schedule as regular wages are paid, and does not include commissions, bonuses, overtime, holiday pay, or any other premiums.

No more than 40 hours of earned, unused sick leave may be carried over from one calendar year to the next.  No payment will be made for earned, unused sick leave upon separation from employment.

Interaction with Other Types of Leave

 If any time off covered under this policy is also covered under the Company’s FMLA, Parental Leave, SNLA leave, or other leave of absence policies, sick time shall run concurrently with such leave. Employees may choose, and the Company may also require employees, to use earned sick time to receive pay for absences under other leave policies if those absences would otherwise be unpaid.

 Use of Sick Leave

 An employee may use sick leave to:

1. Care for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or spouse’s parent who is suffering from a physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care;

2. Care for the employee’s own physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care;

3. Attend the employee’s routine medical appointment or a routine medical appointment for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or spouse’s parent;

4. Address the psychological, physical or legal effects of domestic violence; or

5. Travel to and from an appointment, pharmacy, or other location related to the purpose for which the sick leave was taken.

Employees may use earned sick leave in hourly increments.  Any sick leave taken will run concurrently with time off provided under other state and federal laws that allow employees to take leave for the purposes listed above.

Notification of Use of Sick Leave

Employees must give the Company notice of any use of sick leave.

For pre-scheduled or foreseeable absences, employees must give notice seven days in advance.

If the absence is not foreseeable, the employee must provide notice to the supervisor on duty (1) hour before the start of the employee’s shift. If one (1) hours’ notice is not reasonable due to an accident or sudden illness, notice must be provided as soon as practicable.

If an employee is unable to provide notice personally, the employee’s spouse, adult family member, or other responsible representative may provide notice. For multi-day absences from work, employees must notify the Company of the expected duration of the leave or, if unknown, provide notice on a daily basis.

Sick leave will not excuse lateness for work unless used for an allowable purpose listed above.

Documentation and Verification of Use of Sick Leave

 The Company will never request documentation to explain the nature of an illness or the details of any domestic violence for which an employee has taken leave under this provision. If an employee receives such a request from a manager or supervisor, the employee should not respond to the request and should report it to Human Resources.

The Company may, however, require employees to submit written verification that they have used earned sick time for allowable purposes.  Employees will utilize the Employee Verification Regarding Authorized Use of Earned Sick Time Form to document the allowable purpose of their sick time used.  Circumstances for which employees using sick time will be asked by to complete this form include, but are not limited to:

• Immediately before or after a scheduled vacation
• On or immediately before or after an HEC recognized holiday
• When attendance is a documented performance issue
• When an employee has exhausted their sick time balance
• On a date that the employee has put in for time off and it has been denied

When an employee’s use of earned sick time results in an absence of more than 24 consecutive work hours (or three consecutive work days), the Company may also require a written certification from the employee’s health care provider that he or she used sick time for an allowable purpose.  In addition, the Company may require certification from a health care provider for sick leave taken within two weeks of an employee’s scheduled termination date or after four unforeseeable and undocumented absences within a three-month period.

If an employee is absent for more than 24 consecutive work hours for reasons related to domestic violence, the Company may request documentation concerning the need for earned sick time. In such cases, the employee may provide:

• A restraining order issued by a court;
• A police record documenting the abuse;
• Documentation that the perpetrator of the abuse has been convicted of assault, battery, rape or another “crime against the person” under Massachusetts law, where the victim was a family or household member;
• Medical documentation of the abuse;
• A statement provided by a counselor, social worker, health worker, member of the clergy, shelter worker, legal advocate or other professional who has assisted the employee in addressing the effects of the abuse; or
• A signed written statement from the individual attesting to the abuse.

The Company will not disclose any evidence of domestic violence without the consent of the employee.

If the Company requires certification or documentation concerning the use of earned sick leave, the employee must provide it within seven days of the sick leave for which such certification or documentation is required. If the employee fails to do so, without reasonable justification, the Company may recoup the amount paid for earned sick leave from the employee’s future pay. The Company may also delay or deny the future use of an equivalent amount of earned sick time until such certification or documentation is provided.

Misuse of Sick Leave

Any employee who misuses earned sick leave by taking it for a purpose that is not consistent with the allowable purposes listed above will be subject to discipline up to and including termination. The Company will not base any adverse employment action, including denying use or delaying payment of earned sick leave, on an employee’s lawful use of sick leave.

HOLIDAYS

All full time employees who receive benefits are entitled to 4 HEC recognized holidays annually:

New Year’s Day
Independence Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Non-exempt staff that work on the holiday will be paid time and a half for the hours worked, and will also be paid holiday pay (max of 8 hours – prorated for part time staff)

Benefited Staff who do not work the holiday will receive holiday pay for the HEC recognized holiday.

If a holiday falls during an employee’s vacation, that employee will not be charged a vacation day, but will instead receive holiday pay.

FLOATING HOLIDAYS

Full time staff with benefits will earn 40 hours of floating holiday time annually. 8-hours will be placed in the Floating Holiday bank on July 1st and 32-hours will accrue throughout the remainder of the fiscal year. . (FH hours are pro rated for part time staff with benefits.)

1. Floating holiday hours will accrue in a FH Bank.

2. The FH bank will be capped at 48 hours; there will be no accruals until the bank is reduced by staff use of the hours. (pro-rated for part time staff)

3. Staff may carryover FH hours from one fiscal year to the next.

4. Staff may use FH time in hour increments if approved by their supervisor.

5. Teachers will not accrue FH hours because the school schedule allows for teacher paid time off during other traditional holidays. They are able to use the one 8-hour floating holiday at their discretion with supervisor approval.

6. Floating holidays has no cash value at time of termination, and will not paid out.

PERSONAL TIME

Employees, on July 1 annually, will receive a 16 hour deposit of personal time;   Reasons for personal time include those described in the “Small Necessities Act” and also include time off to attend to business or their personal matters that can only be attended to during an employee’s shift.  Personal days are not intended to be used as additional vacation days.

Employees are expected to give 3 days notice when requesting personal time off since the intent is for time to be used for planned events.  In case of emergency, requests with less than 3 days notice may be granted and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

LONG TERM ILLNESS BANK

This account can be used to cover time off from work that results from a qualified FMLA or, Worker’s Compensation leave, or due to disability event. (These events are described individually in other sections in this manual.)

At the end of each Fiscal Year the sick bank will be reduced to a maximum of 2 weeks. Sick hours over two weeks will be rolled into the Long Term Illness Bank. This bank has no cash value at time of termination, and will not be paid out.

The maximum number of hours in the LTI Bank will be 480.

BEREAVEMENT

Staff who receive benefits will be granted bereavement leave for up to 5 paid, scheduled working days (maximum of 40 hours) within seven consecutive days following the death of a husband, wife, mother, father, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, or significant other, at the discretion of the Program Director or Department Head. (Pro-rated for part time staff)

Staff who receive benefits will be granted paid bereavement leave for up to 3 working days (maximum of 24 hours) within seven consecutive days following the death of a brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, mother-in-law, father-in -law, son-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in- law, or any relative living in the same household, at the discretion of the Program Director or Department Head.

Documentation may be required to access this benefit.

JURY DUTY

Full and part time benefited employees who are called to jury duty must provide HEC with appropriate paperwork. HEC will pay the employee for regularly scheduled work hours that were spent at jury duty for up to three (3) days. If the employee remains on jury duty beyond 3 days, HEC will supplement the employee’s pay by the difference between their regular pay and the
pay they are receiving from the court system.

Night Shift Employees:
If you are called for jury duty and you work the night shift, you do not have to work the night
prior to jury duty, or any nights that you are scheduled during your active jury duty. Your supervisor must enter that you are on jury duty in e-time, and you will need to submit the proper documentation to payroll. If you serve on jury duty and it ends before 4 p.m., you are required to report to work for your scheduled shift that night. However, every attempt will be made to allow you to use personal or vacation time if you prefer not to work the night jury duty ends. You

should give your supervisor or campus designee as much advance notice as possible if you do not want to work that shift so they can find a replacement for you.

SNOW DAYS

As HEC is never closed due to bad weather conditions, all employees are expected to work their scheduled hours. If, due to weather conditions, an employee expects to be late for work or does not believe that it will be possible to get to work, s/he has the responsibility of notifying his/her supervisor, in advance of being late or absent. Any work time missed due to weather conditions will either be rescheduled by the employee with the supervisor’s approval during the same work

week, or be taken as personal or vacation leave.