49-5-715 - Leave to hold statewide office as president of a professional employees' association.
49-5-715. Leave to hold statewide office as president of a professional employees' association.
(a) Leave to hold statewide office as president of a professional employees' association shall be granted if the person requesting leave provides the director of schools with proof of election and proof of the term of office. Acceptable proof of election shall include, but not be limited to, a certification by the professional employees' association of the date of the election and the results of the election. Leave shall be granted from a date certain to a date certain pursuant to all requirements in § 49-5-704.
(b) For purposes of this section only, the words professional employees' association shall mean any organization or association granting membership to professional employees of local school systems and professionals employed by the state department of education; provided, however, that membership statewide must exceed twenty-five thousand (25,000) dues-paying members.
(c) Any person on leave shall retain all rights enumerated in § 49-5-708.
(d) As association service leave is leave without pay, the person on leave shall be entitled to maintain benefits only if the full cost of the benefits is paid by the person on leave or the association of which the person has been elected president. At the end of leave taken pursuant to this section, the person taking the leave shall be returned to the person's former position or a comparable position.
[Acts 2004, ch. 650, § 1.]