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Board advances unpaid-leave policies after debate over staff absences and exceptions
Summary
The Lakota Board moved forward with revisions to unpaid-leave language across multiple personnel policies after reviewing district data showing concentrated unpaid-leave use. Board members discussed equity, exceptions for one-time events, and a plan to bring data into collective bargaining negotiations.
The Lakota Board of Education on June 16 advanced revisions to district policies governing unpaid leave for employees, following staff presentations of attendance data and extended discussion among board members about exceptions and collective bargaining implications.
Staff presented analyses showing a concentrated pattern of unpaid-leave use: the materials reported thousands of unpaid-leave incidents in a year but that those incidents were concentrated among roughly 137 individuals. Board members described the figures as “eye opening” and said the district’s student instructional time was being affected by frequent staff absences.
The policy changes standardize unpaid-leave language across four policy documents (administrators, LSSA, LEA and non-represented employees). Staff and board members said the intent is to address excessive or patterned absences, while recognizing some staff need leave for significant life events; board members repeatedly requested that administrators retain discretion to approve exceptions where appropriate.
Several members said they hoped the language would be temporary and that unpaid-leave procedures should ultimately be negotiated at the bargaining table. A board member noted the district attempted to include similar language in collective bargaining but did not reach agreement during negotiations, which left the board to adopt policy language in the interim. Staff said they will bring clean, regularly updated approval records to help calibrate individual decisions and to inform bargaining.
During discussion, board members emphasized outreach and a nonpunitive approach for supervisors: staff said building administrators and human resources will implement proactive alerts to employees about attendance patterns (for example, notifying staff who have missed multiple days) and will pair that outreach with collaborative conversations rather than immediate punitive action.
A final vote on the policies was recorded by roll call; one board member recorded a “no” vote during the recorded roll call on the policy package (Schaefer). Board members and staff noted the policy can be revised later and said they intend to pursue related changes at the bargaining table in negotiations planned for November.
