Staff recommend rolling 12‑month FMLA calculation and remove spouse combined‑leave limit from policy

During the policy review, staff clarified how federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time would be measured under the district's policy. One speaker explained, "because we're talking about federal FMLA here, we use the rolling 12 month period measured forward from the date of an employee's first FMLA usage."Committee members also reviewed an optional provision that would require spouses who both work for the district to take a combined total of 12 weeks of leave for the birth or placement of a child. Staff said that the district currently does not enforce such a requirement and recommended striking the provision as unnecessary; one speaker said, "We would never enforce it, and I don't think an employee would ever say, oh, only 11 made 2."Staff recommended relying on the district's handbook and legal advice about whether to adopt optional parental-leave combinations but signaled the working preference to remove the combined-spouse limit from the draft policy. The item remained at the discussion stage with instructions to revise the draft language in line with federal FMLA rules and the committee's preference regarding spouse leave.