a) Upon request each teacher shall be allowed compassionate leave without loss of salary in the case of serious illness of his/her father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, spouse or common-law spouse up to but not exceeding five (5) days; and mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law up to but not exceeding three (3) days; and uncle, aunt and friend up to one (1) day upon approval by the superintendent.
For the purpose of this article, a common-law spouse shall be defined as follows: Where an employee establishes that he or she has been residing with a person and has been publicly representing that person as his or her spouse for a period of not less than one (1) year, that person shall be deemed to be the common-law spouse of the employee.
b) Leave without loss of salary beyond this amount for compassionate reasons may be granted at the discretion of the superintendent.