Calamity Days

Classified Employees - OAPSE – Article 9.18:

(Classified) Employees shall be paid for all time lost when the Board determines that schools are officially closed on a system-wide basis owing to disease epidemic, hazardous weather condition, or other public calamity. Nothing herein shall be construed as requiring payment in excess of the employee’s regular wage rate or salary for any time worked while the school in which he/she is employed is officially closed for the reasons set forth herein. Members of the bargaining unit who are, by reason of their assignment, required to work when schools are closed for such reasons shall be paid their regular wage rate unless the employee elects to receive equal compensatory time off in lieu of pay. The employee must notify the supervisor in writing by the end of the business day after the time has been worked if the employee desires to use compensatory time at a future date rather than receive payment. The compensatory time shall be taken at a time that is mutually agreeable to the employee and the employee’s supervisor and shall be taken, where practical, within a two-week period following the day when the compensatory time was earned.

Classified Supervisors - CSCSA – Article 2:

Calamity days are days when schools are officially closed on a system-wide basis owing to disease epidemic, hazardous weather conditions, or other public calamity. Calamity days will be regular workdays for “essential” Classified Supervisors and other Classified Employees not eligible for membership in a bargaining unit. Nothing herein shall be construed as requiring payment in excess of the classified supervisor’s regular wage rate or salary for any time worked while the school in which the Classified Supervisor is employed is officially closed for the reasons set forth herein. Classified Supervisors who are, by the nature of their work, required to work shall be given equal compensatory time off for all time worked.

Athletic Directors:
Athletic Directors are considered essential personnel. As such, they are required to work on calamity days, but Athletic Trainers are not.

Certificated Employees – CEA – Article 1007 and 1105.02:

Teachers are not expected to work when a teacher’s assigned building and/or the CCS district is closed due to a calamity.
Tutors and Latchkey teachers shall be compensated at their hourly rate for hours they were scheduled to work but did not work as a result of schools being closed for a calamity, as with regular contract teachers in the same schools, up to a maximum of five (5) such calamity days in a school year.
HR Supporting Vision: Maximizing Human Capital for Student Success
The Columbus City School District does not discriminate because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex or handicap with regard to admission,
access, treatment or employment. This policy is applicable in all district programs and activities.

Certificated Staff Assigned to Multiple Buildings:
In the event of individual building closings, any teacher assigned to multiple buildings shall report to the open building.

Essential Personnel

Essential personnel are any employees who have been notified by supervision that they are essential to district operations and, therefore, must report to work on a calamity day.
In addition to the above association agreements, the following calamity day procedures apply:

DISTRICT PROCEDURES FOR CALAMITY DAYS:

Administrators
All administrators are considered essential personnel and are, therefore, expected to report to work on their regular schedule (or as soon as conditions causing the calamity day permit), unless otherwise directed differently or unless a level 3 or higher emergency exists in the county where you reside and/or travel through to get to CCS. If you reside in a level 3 area outside of Franklin County you must have a pre-designated person to come in your place. If a level 3 emergency exists in Franklin County, no one should be on the roads until the level 3 is lifted.
All school building administrators (Principals, Assistant Principals, Supervisors and Career Center Directors) are expected to report to school as soon as possible and remain until noon. These administrators are required to stay on call either at school or home during the remaining normal hours of duty.

Extracurricular Activities
When a school building is closed for a calamity day, no extracurricular activities, including practice, will take place.

Straight Time Pay for Hourly Employees
The maximum compensatory time that an employee can receive is 8 hours per day. If an hourly-paid employee works more than 8 hours on a calamity day, the extra hours worked above 8 hours will be paid at a minimum of straight time pay.

Overtime Pay for Hourly Employees
If an hourly-paid employee actually works over 40 hours within a workweek, the time over 40 hours is paid at the overtime (OT) rate of 1.5 x hourly rate.

Treatment of Leaves
Essential Personnel: Employees identified as essential are required to work when schools are closed for a calamity day. Examples of essential personnel include but are not limited to, administrators, custodians, and others who are told by their supervisors that they are considered essential. If an essential employee is on a previously approved vacation, personal leave, or sick leave, that employee is not required to work but will be charged for the relevant leave taken.
Nonessential Personnel: If a non-essential employee is on a previously approved vacation, personal leave, or sick leave during a calamity day the employee will not be charged for any of the leave days.
NOTE: Calamity day(s) do not change Unpaid Leave of Absences, Sabbatical Leaves or any other Board-approved un-paid leave status.