Could a Kentucky school district pay retiring teachers for only some unused sick leave days?

Plain-English summary

In 1997, Kentucky's Attorney General read KRS 161.155(8) to allow a school board to choose whether to compensate a retiring employee or teacher for unused sick leave. If a district chose to pay, the AG said it could not count only some accumulated days or pay different rates according to where the leave was earned. The statute's phrase “each unused sick leave day” meant all such days.

The opinion rejected the examples presented: limiting the benefit to teachers who had worked at least eight years in the district and paying a lower rate for leave earned outside it. It also noted that days held before the district began a payment program were included.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1997. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Historical summary

Retiring school employees and districts

The quoted statute gave district boards a choice to pay for unused sick leave at retirement. It set a ceiling of 30% of the employee's or teacher's last daily salary rate for each unused day. The AG focused on what followed once a district chose the benefit: “each” required counting every unused day, including days accumulated before the program's implementation.

One rate for all accumulated days

The AG rejected a lower payment rate for days earned outside the district. It said the statute contemplated one rate for all unused days; reducing the rate for some days would function like partially excluding them from payment.

Common questions

Did every Kentucky school district have to offer a sick-leave payout under this opinion?

No. The statute said a district board “may compensate” at retirement. The AG addressed the conditions a district could impose if it chose to offer payment.

Could a district require eight years of employment before paying?

The AG found no statutory support for the example of limiting the benefit to teachers employed by the district for at least eight years.

Could leave earned at another district be paid at a lower rate?

No, under the opinion's reading. It said the statute contemplated one rate applied to all unused sick leave days.

Background and statutory framework

Senator David Boswell asked whether districts could attach conditions to the retirement payout under KRS 161.155(8). The AG interpreted “each unused sick leave day” using the statute's own inclusion of leave accumulated before program implementation and cited Adams Express Company v City of Lexington and Smith v Hall on the meaning of “each.” The opinion decided the two conditions presented, not a separate dispute over any individual employee's leave balance.

Citations and references

• KRS 161.155(8): quoted retirement payment provision.
• Adams Express Company v City of Lexington, 83 Ky 657, 660 (1886), and Smith v Hall, 217 Ky 615, 290 SW 480, 482 (1927): judicial uses of “each” cited by the AG.

Source

• Landing page: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_70802e7e-f992-420e-8128-e843332fa099/
• Original PDF: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/download/file/IO_70802e7e-f992-420e-8128-e843332fa099

Original opinion text

OAG 97-28
August 8, 1997
Subject:

Paying school employees for unused sick leave days

Requested by:

State Senator David Boswell

Written by:

Ross T. Carter

Syllabus:

School districts choosing to pay employees for unused sick leave days must base payments on all unused sick leave days

Statutes construed:
OAGs cited:

KRS 161.155(8)

None

Opinion of the Attorney General
KRS 161.155(8) says:
After July 1, 1982, a district board of education may compensate, at the time of retirement, an employee or a teacher for each unused sick leave day. The rate of compensation for each unused sick leave day shall be based on a percentage of the daily salary rate calculated from the employee’s or teacher’s last annual salary, not to exceed thirty percent (30%). Payment for unused sick leave days shall be incorporated into the annual salary of the fnal year of service; provided that the member makes the regular retirement contribution for members on the sick leave payment. The accumulation of these days includes

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Page 2

unused sick leave days held by the employee or teacher at
the time of implementation of the program.
We have been asked whether this subsection allows school districts to
impose conditions on the granting of this beneft. Specifc examples
are a school district that grants the beneft only to teachers employed
in the district for at least eight years, and a school district that pays
teachers at a lower rate for sick leave earned outside the district.
We fnd nothing in the statute to support the imposition of these
conditions. The expression “each unused sick leave day” cannot be
construed to mean anything other than the total number of sick leave
days accumulated. We have examined various dictionaries and other
authorities and fnd them unanimous in defning the word each to signify all in most contexts. In Adams Express Company v City of Lexington, 83 Ky 657, 660 (1886), the court said that each “denotes every one of the two or more comprising the whole.” In Smith v Hall, 217 Ky 615, 290 SW 480, 482 (1927), the court said that each “means every individual of two or more, especially when applied to a defnite number.” In Black’s Law Dictionary p 155 (West, 6th ed 1990) each is described as “a distributive adjective pronoun, which denotes or refers to every one of the persons or things mentioned; every one of two or more persons or things, composing the whole, separately considered. . . . ‘Each’ is synonymous with ‘all’ and agrees in inclusiveness . . . .” We could go on. All the authorities point to the conclusion that “each unused sick leave day” means all unused sick leave days, not some of them. A school district has no authority to compensate employees for some but not all unused sick leave days. This conclusion is supported by the last sentence of the subsection in question, which says, “The accumulation of these days includes unused sick leave days held by the employee or teacher at the time of implementation of the program.” This sentence prohibits school districts from excluding sick leave days accumulated before the district initiates the program to pay for unused sick leave days. It is consistent with our interpretation, which prohibits other sorts of reductions in the

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number of sick leave days for which an employee may be compensated.
We reach the same conclusion regarding the payment of unused
sick leave at different rates depending on where the sick leave was
earned. The statute contemplates one rate applied to all unused sick
leave days; it does not authorize different rates for different days. To
apply different rates would amount to a partial exclusion: paying certain days at one-half the rate of other days, for example, is the same as excluding one-half of those days. Albert B. Chandler III Attorney General

Ross T. Carter
Assistant Attorney General