A. A teacher, being a member of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society Executive Committee, or of the Executive Committee of the Louis Riel Teachers’ Association, or of any special committee of the Society, or being appointed representative or delegate of the Society or of the Association, and being authorized by the Executive Committee of the Society to attend a meeting of the Committee of which the teacher is a member, or to act as a representative or delegate of the Society or of the Association in a matter of Society Business requiring absence from school, shall have the right to attend such meetings or to act as such representative or delegate and shall be excused from school duties for such purposes on not more than a total of five (5) teaching days in any school year, provided that a substitute satisfactory to the Division can be secured and that the cost of providing said substitute is assumed by the Society and shall not be a charge upon the Division. Maximum days allowed the Association/Society, in combined total shall not exceed .25 x the number of full-time equivalent teachers in the employ of the Division as at September 30th in each school year.
B. No additional leave of absence beyond five (5) days shall be taken for the purposes mentioned above except with the consent and approval of the Division or the Superintendent.
C. Within the aggregate cap in (A), there will be a pool of fifteen (15) teacher days which may be allocated by the Association for the purpose outlined in this article. For each day’s leave of absence taken pursuant to this sub-paragraph, the Association shall reimburse the Division the costs of the substitute. No member shall be allowed more than eleven (11) days absence in total in any one school year for the purpose outlined herein.
D. The Association shall, upon giving notice on or before April 30th, be entitled up to two full-time release positions (to a maximum of three (3) persons) as determined by the Association to attend to Association business for the following school year. There shall be no loss of benefits and the Association shall reimburse the Division for each release time teacher’s salary, allowance where applicable, benefits and other costs related to each release time teacher’s secondment.
On or before April 30th in the year of the secondment each release time teacher shall advise the Superintendent of Schools in writing of the teacher’s intention to return at the commencement of the next school year. Failure to do so will relieve the Division of the onus of reemploying that teacher.
A teacher employed by the Division who is elected to a release time position shall at the termination of the teacher’s secondment return to the same position the teacher held prior to the leave, or similar.