Court Opinion

ID: 9786119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 23:47:48.423217+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:41.881024
License: Public Domain

Justice EISMANN,
concurring in the result.
Idaho Code § 33-1216(a) provides:
At the beginning of each new employment year and thereafter as necessary during the employment year, each certificated and noncertificated employee of any school district, including charter districts, shall be entitled to sick leave with full pay of one (1) day for each month of service, or major portion thereof as projected for the employment year, subject to the limitations provided by this chapter.
I agree that the statute clearly applies to both part-time and full-time employees. It grants sick leave to “each certificated and noncertificated employee.”
The next issue is how to calculate the sick leave. The amount of sick leave to which each employee is entitled is to be calculated at the beginning of the employment year. Each employee is “entitled to sick leave with full pay of one (1) day for each month of service, or major portion thereof as projected for the employment year.” (Emphasis added.) The phrase “as projected for the em*16ployment year” shows that the amount of each employee’s sick leave is to be calculated at the beginning of the employment year based upon the employee’s projected period of employment. That is also consistent with the beginning of the statute, which provides that each employee is entitled to the sick leave “[a]t the beginning of each new employment year and thereafter as necessary.” An employee is entitled to take his or her total amount of sick leave at the beginning of the employment year. The employee does not have to first work a month in order to earn a day of sick leave.
Each employee is “entitled to sick leave with full pay of one (1) day for each month of service, or major portion thereof.” Only two dates are necessary to calculate the amount of sick leave to which an employee is entitled: the date on which his or her employment year commences and the projected last date of the employment year. If the commencement date falls in the first half of the month, the employee is entitled to one day of sick leave for that month. If it falls in the last half of the month, he or she is not. Likewise, if the projected last day of employment falls in the last half of the month, the employee is entitled to one day of sick leave for that month. If it falls in the first half of the month, he or she is not. Of course, the employee is entitled to one day of sick leave for each of the other months during the employee’s projected period of employment.
In summary, I concur that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed insofar as it provides, “The School Board was and is required to provide the Part-Time Bus Drivers, and each of them, with paid sick leave benefits under Idaho Code § 33-1216(a) for each month of service, or major portion of such month of service, projected for the employment year.” The district court did not address precisely how to calculate the sick leave, but it should be calculated as I have explained above.