GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1993 SESSION

CHAPTER 98
HOUSE BILL 616

AN ACT TO GRANT LOCAL BOARDS OF EDUCATION MORE FLEXIBILITY TO ESTABLISH YEAR-ROUND SCHOOLS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 115C-302(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	Teachers shall be paid promptly when their salaries are due provided the legal requirements for their employment and service have been met.  All teachers employed by any local school administrative unit who are to be paid from local funds shall be paid promptly as provided by law and as state-allotted teachers are paid.
Teachers paid State funds shall be paid as follows:
(1)	Academic Teachers. – Regular state-allotted teachers shall be employed for a period of 10 calendar months. Salary payments to regular state-allotted teachers shall be made monthly at the end of each calendar month of service:  Provided, that teachers employed for a period of 10 calendar months in year-round schools shall be paid in 12 equal installments:  Provided further, that any individual teacher who is not employed in a year-round school may be paid in 12 monthly installments if the teacher so requests on or before the first day of the school year.  Such request shall be filed in the local school administrative unit which employs the teacher.  The payment of the annual salary in 12 installments instead of 10 shall not increase or decrease said annual salary nor in any other way alter the contract made between the teacher and the said local school administrative unit; nor shall such payment apply to any teacher who is employed for a period of less than 10 months.  Included within the 10 calendar months employment shall be annual vacation leave at the same rate provided for State employees, computed at one twelfth (1/12) of the annual rate for State employees for each calendar month of employment; which shall be provided by each local board of education at a time when students are not scheduled to be in regular attendance.  Included within the 10 calendar months employment each local board of education shall designate the same or an equivalent number of legal holidays occurring within the period of employment for academic teachers as those designated by the State Personnel Commission for State employees; on a day that employees are required to report for a workday but pupils are not required to attend school due to inclement weather, a teacher may elect not to report due to hazardous travel conditions and to take one of his annual vacation days or to make up the day at a time agreed upon by the employee and his immediate supervisor or principal.  Within policy adopted by the State Board of Education, each local board of education shall develop rules and regulations designating what additional portion of the 10 calendar months not devoted to classroom teaching, holidays, or annual leave shall apply to service rendered before the opening of the school term, during the school term, and after the school term and to fix and regulate the duties of state-allotted teachers during said period, but in no event shall the total number of workdays exceed 200 days.  Local boards of education shall consult with the employed public school personnel in the development of the 10-calendar-months schedule.
(2)	Occupational Education Teachers. – State-allotted months of employment to local boards of education as provided by the State Board of Education shall be used for the employment of teachers of occupational education for a term of employment as determined by the local boards of education.  Salary payments to these occupational education teachers shall be made monthly at the end of each calendar month of service: Provided, that local boards shall not reduce the term of employment for any vocational agriculture teacher personnel position that was 12 calendar months for the 1982-83 school year for any school year thereafter: Provided further, that teachers employed for a term of 10 calendar months in year-round schools shall be paid in 12 equal installments:  Provided further, that any individual teacher employed for a term of 10 calendar months who is not employed in a year-round school may be paid in 12 monthly installments if the teacher so requests on or before the first day of the school year.  Such request shall be filed in the administrative unit which employs the teacher.  The payment of the annual salary in 12 installments instead of 10 shall not increase or decrease said annual salary nor in any other way alter the contract made between the teacher and the said administrative unit.  Included within their term of employment shall be the same rate of annual vacation leave and legal holidays provided under the same conditions as set out in subdivision (1) above, but in no event shall the total workdays for a 10-month employee exceed 200 days in a 10-month schedule and the workweek shall constitute five days for all occupational teachers regardless of the employment period.
Occupational education teachers who are employed for 11 or 12 months may, with prior approval of the principal, work on annual leave days designated in the school calendar and take those annual leave days during the 11th or 12th month of employment.
No deductions shall be made from salaries of teachers of vocational agriculture and home economics whose salaries are paid in part from State and federal vocational funds while in attendance upon community, county and State meetings called for the specific purpose of promoting the agricultural interests of North Carolina, when such attendance is approved by the superintendent of the administrative unit and the State Director of Vocational Education.
(3)	Notwithstanding any provisions of this section to the contrary no person shall be entitled to pay for any vacation day not earned by that person.  The first 10 days of annual vacation leave earned by a teacher during any fiscal year period shall be scheduled to be used in the school calendar adopted by the respective local boards of education.  Vacation days shall not be used for extending the term of employment of individuals.  Teachers may accumulate annual vacation leave days as follows: annual leave may be accumulated without any applicable maximum until June 30 of each year.  On June 30 of each year, any teachers with more than 30 days of accumulated leave shall have the excess accumulation cancelled so that only 30 days are carried forward to July 1 of the same year.  All vacation leave taken by the teacher will be upon the authorization of his immediate supervisor and under policies established by the local board of education.  An employee shall be paid in a lump sum for accumulated annual leave not to exceed a maximum of 240 hours when separated from service due to resignation, dismissal, reduction in force, death, or service retirement.  If the last day of terminal leave falls on the last workday in the month, payment shall be made for the remaining nonworkdays in that month.  Employees retiring on disability retirement may exhaust annual leave rather than be paid in a lump sum.  The provisions of this subdivision shall be accomplished without additional State and local funds being appropriated for this purpose.  The State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations for the administration of this subdivision.
(3a)	Teachers employed on a 10- or 11-month basis at year-round schools shall be employed for the same total number of days as teachers employed for a period of 10 or 11 calendar months, respectively, but those days may be scheduled over 12 calendar months.  Annual leave, sick leave, workdays, holidays, salary, and longevity, for teachers who are employed on a 10- or 11-month basis at year-round schools, shall be equivalent to those of teachers employed for 10 or 11 calendar months, respectively.
(4)	Each local board of education shall sustain any loss by reason of an overpayment to any teacher paid from State funds.
(5)	All of the foregoing provisions of this section shall be subject to the requirement that at least fifty dollars ($50.00), or other minimum amount required by federal social security laws, of the compensation of each school employee covered by the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System or otherwise eligible for social security coverage shall be paid in each of the four quarters of the calendar year.
(6)	The State Board of Education, in fixing the State standard salary schedule of teachers as authorized by law, shall provide that teachers who entered the armed or auxiliary forces of the United States after September 16, 1940, and who left their positions for such service shall be allowed experience increments for the period of such service as though the same had not been interrupted thereby, in the event such persons return to the position of teachers, principals and superintendents in the public schools of the State after having been honorably discharged from the armed or auxiliary forces of the United States."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 115C-316(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	School officials and other employees shall be paid promptly when their salaries are due provided the legal requirements for their employment and service have been met.  All school officials and other employees employed by any local school administrative unit who are to be paid from local funds shall be paid promptly as provided by law and as state-allotted school officials and other employees are paid.
Public school employees paid from State funds shall be paid as follows:
(1)	Employees Other than Superintendents, Supervisors and Classified Principals on an Annual Basis. – Salary payments to employees other than superintendents, supervisors, and classified principals employed on an annual basis shall be made monthly at the end of each calendar month of service.  Included within their term of employment shall be annual vacation leave at the same rate provided for State employees, computed at one-twelfth (1/12) of the annual rate for state employees for each calendar month of employment.  On a day that employees are required to report for a workday but pupils are not required to attend school due to inclement weather, an employee may elect not to report due to hazardous travel conditions and to take one of his annual vacation days or to make up the day at a time agreed upon by the employee and his immediate supervisor or principal.  Included within their term of employment each local board of education shall designate the same or an equivalent number of legal holidays as those designated by the State Personnel Commission for State employees.
(2)	School Employees Paid on an Hourly or Other Basis. – Salary payments to employees other than those covered in G.S. 115C-272(b)(1), 115C-285(a)(1) and (2), 115C-302(a)(1) and (2), and 115C-316(a)(1) shall be made at a time determined by each local board of education.  Expenditures for the salary of these employees from State funds shall be within allocations made by the State Board of Education and in accordance with rules and regulations approved by the State Board of Education concerning allocations of State funds:  Provided, that school employees employed for a term of 10 calendar months in year-round schools shall be paid in 12 equal installments:  Provided further, that any individual school employee employed for a term of 10 calendar months who is not employed in a year-round school may be paid in 12 monthly installments if the employee so requests on or before the first day of the school year.  Such request shall be filed in the administrative unit which employs the employee.  The payment of the annual salary in 12 installments instead of 10 shall not increase or decrease said annual salary nor in any other way alter the contract between the employee and the said administrative unit.  Included within the term of employment shall be provided for full-time employees annual vacation leave at the same rate provided for State employees, computed at one-twelfth (1/12) of the annual rate for State employees for each calendar month of employment, to be taken under policies determined by each local board of education.  On a day that employees are required to report for a workday but pupils are not required to attend school due to inclement weather, an employee may elect not to report due to hazardous travel conditions and to take one of his annual vacation days or to make up the day at a time agreed upon by the employee and his immediate supervisor or principal.  Included within their term of employment, each local board of education shall designate the same or an equivalent number of legal holidays occurring within the period of employment as those designated by the State Personnel Commission for State employees.
(3)	Notwithstanding any provisions of this section to the contrary no person shall be entitled to pay for any vacation day not earned by that person.  The first 10 days of annual leave earned by a 10- or 11-month employee during any fiscal year period shall be scheduled to be used in the school calendar adopted by the respective local boards of education.  Vacation days shall not be used for extending the term of employment of individuals.  Ten- or 11-month employees may accumulate annual vacation leave days as follows:  annual leave may be accumulated without any applicable maximum until June 30 of each year.  On June 30 of each year, any of these employees with more than 30 days of accumulated leave shall have the excess accumulation cancelled so that only 30 days are carried forward to July 1 of the same year.  All vacation leave taken by these employees will be upon the authorization of their immediate supervisor and under policies established by the local board of education.  An employee shall be paid in a lump sum for accumulated annual leave not to exceed a maximum of 240 hours when separated from service due to resignation, dismissal, reduction in force, death or service retirement.  If the last day of terminal leave falls on the last workday in the month, payment shall be made for the remaining nonworkdays in that month.  Employees retiring on disability retirement may exhaust annual leave rather than be paid in a lump sum.  The provisions of this subdivision shall be accomplished without additional State and local funds being appropriated for this purpose.  The State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations for the administration of this subdivision.
(4)	Twelve-month school employees other than superintendents, supervisors and classified principals paid on an hourly or other basis whether paid from State or from local funds may accumulate annual vacation leave days as follows: annual leave may be accumulated without any applicable maximum until June 30 of each year.  On June 30 of each year, any employee with more than 30 days of accumulated leave shall have the excess accumulation cancelled so that only 30 days are carried forward to July 1 of the same year.  All vacation leave taken by the employee will be upon the authorization of his immediate supervisor and under policies established by the local board of education.  An employee shall be paid in a lump sum for accumulated annual leave not to exceed a maximum of 240 hours when separated from service due to resignation, dismissal, reduction in force, death, or service retirement.  If the last day of terminal leave falls on the last workday in the month, payment shall be made for the remaining nonworkdays in that month.  Employees retiring on disability retirement may exhaust annual leave rather than be paid in a lump sum.  The provisions of this subdivision shall be accomplished without additional State and local funds being appropriated for this purpose.  The State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations for the administration of this subdivision.
(4a)	Employees employed on a 10- or 11-month basis at year-round schools shall be employed for the same total number of days as employees employed for a period of 10 or 11 calendar months, respectively, but those days may be scheduled over 12 calendar months.  Annual leave, sick leave, workdays, holidays, salary, and longevity, for employees who are employed on a 10- or 11-month basis at year-round schools, shall be equivalent to those of employees employed for 10 or 11 calendar months, respectively.
(5)	All of the foregoing provisions of this section shall be subject to the requirement that at least fifty dollars ($50.00), or other minimum amount required by federal social security laws, of the compensation of each school employee covered by the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System or otherwise eligible for social security coverage shall be paid in each of the four quarters of the calendar year.
(6)	Each local board of education shall sustain any loss by reason of an overpayment to any school official or other employee paid from State funds."
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 1st day of June, 1993.

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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

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Daniel Blue, Jr.
Speaker of the House of Representatives