Sixty-six employees have donated a total of 1,472 hours to the emergency leave bank, a little more than the six-month average of between 1,200 and 1,400 hours donated.
The emergency leave bank is a program of the Alamo Community College District in which employees donate up to 40 hours of leave time to be used by other employees who have exhausted accrued leave because of a catastrophic illness.
"The emergency leave bank is there to help employees, and it is other employees providing that help," said Homer Smith, training and development manager for the district's employee services department.
It was created in 1999 after William Stacey Hawthorne, a former admissions specialist in the admissions and records office of this college, ran out of sick leave when he was hospitalized with AIDS in 1998.
This prompted the college's Staff Council to propose a sick-leave sharing policy. Hawthorne died in the summer of 1999, and money was raised to plant a tree in his memory near the flagpole east of Fletcher Administration Center.
He died before he could benefit from the leave bank.
In accordance with Section 661.001-661.008 of the Texas Government Code, district trustees established an emergency leave bank for employees, which was adopted in September 1999, Smith said.
The program is outlined by employee services in a document called Alamo Community College Leave Bank Policy signed by former Chancellor Robert Ramsay. The document is undated and does not have a board policy number although the employee services department refers to it as policy.
Smith said Wednesday that it was not adopted as an official board policy but is considered a guideline to follow. He said the document signed by Ramsay is not dated because it was the one presented to the board.
The copy approved by the board cannot be located, he said.
The policy defines a catastrophic Illness or injury as a severe condition or combination of conditions affecting the mental or physical health of an employee or an employee's immediate family, which requires the services of a licensed practitioner for a prolonged period of time and that forces the employee to exhaust all accrued leave to lose compensation from the district to care for themselves or their immediate family.
To be eligible, an employee must have exhausted all accrued time, including vacation, personal and sick leave.
According to Smith, 33 people applied in the last year with 15 denials and 18 approvals.
A few denials have been for a bunion removal, fractures, a sprained ankle, pregnancy and pregnancy leave for the husband.
Approvals have been for severe complications because of a pregnancy, leukemia, cancer, a broken hip, a brain aneurysm and breaks that require surgery.
"It is a bridge, a way that the workers in the district can help co-workers," said college health center Coordinator Paula Daggett, who is the medical adviser to the leave bank. Contributions may be made only during October and April or when the bank administrator issues a special call for donations when the balance is low.
Employees may contribute no more than 40 hours in eight-hour increments. During a special call for donations, employees may donate up to an additional five days (40 hours) of sick leave.
The leave contributed by an employee cannot be designated for use by a particular employee or group of employees.
To request a withdrawal of leave from the bank, an eligible employee must submit a withdrawal form to the administrator.
The leave bank administrator is the only one who sees the person's name applying for the leave.
The administrator reviews the application for completeness and forwards it to a districtwide committee of 10.
The amount of sick leave granted to any one employee or any fiscal year cannot exceed one-third of the total amount of time in the leave bank or 90 days, whichever comes first for full-time employees. The bank also can be used by part-time employees.
"There is a great deal of compassion in the committee and the people that donate their hours. I think this is an excellent program, and it has helped a lot of people. It builds morale and shows the district cares about its people," Smith said.
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