Bay District Food Service Employees Will Get Accrued Sick Leave - WMBB News 13 - The Panhandle's News Leader

An agreement between Bay District Schools and the Bay Education Support Personnel Association (BESPA) may have employees celebrating Tuesday. The district and BESPA reps have signed a memorandum putting in writing that food service employees will be paid for their accrued sick leave before transition to Chartwells.  

The memorandum states based on the school board decision to privatize school services, food service employees with accumulated sick leave will be paid for their sick time hours just like if they were retiring.  

According to school board policy, the maximum amount of sick leave pay the district will give is based on how long the employee has worked there and employees with the district that have worked more than 13 years, will be paid 100% of their sick leave hours.  

"We're following statute. They are allowed to get a up to a certain number of days that they have accumulated and that has been our goal all along and that is what they agreed to. In fact, they were very kind of surprised and shocked that it came that fast and that is what they wanted to do we wanted to treat them fairly," said Bay District Schools Superintendent, Bill Husfelt.  

The agreement also says Chartwells will employ all food service personnel except for five contract administration employees and those currently within five years of retirement. It also says that after five years after the board decided to privatize, Bay District Schools will no longer employ any food service personnel.