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WILKES-BARRE — The saga of Wilkes-Barre Area School District elementary teacher Elise Mosca should hit its next big moment early in September when a hearing on a union grievance related to the case is tentatively set.
But the district’s lack of control regarding unpaid leaves of absence, exposed when Mosca used a leave to appear on a reality TV show, is already being addressed.
The school board voted unanimously Monday to approve leaves of absence for three teachers associates, but this time there was a hitch. The motions made the approval “pending proper documentation and a fully executed Memorandum of Understanding” between the board and the teacher union.
Mosca’s initial leave at the start of the 2013-14 school year sparked public controversy when she appeared on ABC’s “The Bachelor.” While many focused on the nature of her apparent efforts at stardom, the publicity exposed a huge loophole in the district’s contract with teachers.
Like most local contracts, Wilkes-Barre Area restricts unpaid leave to a very narrow list of reasons tied to military service or medical and family issues.
But when Mosca sought a second leave the board granted them even after her first appearance on reality show. Solicitor Ray Wendolowski said the board had little choice: Granting leave without asking for a reason had been done so often over the years it legally qualified as a “past practice.”
The law does consider past practices essentially as an unwritten part of a contract, and Wendolowski predicted denying leave would prompt a grievance. When the board decided to reject another leave request from Mosca at the start of this school year, the prediction was fulfilled.
The union filed a grievance, and on Monday Wendolowski said the date being discussed for a hearing is Sept. 9, though it hasn’t been finalized.
The decision from the grievance hearing likely won’t be the last word. Even if the union wins, the board could take the case to court, Wendolowski has said. If the board wins, the union could go to court.
But Monday’s vote on three teacher associate leaves — for Lynn Brown, Valerie Delaney and Mary Beth Boyle — may provide an alternate path for settling the dispute. Granting such leaves with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is intended to allow a leave outside the written terms of the contract while not creating a “past practice.”
The idea, which has been used by other area districts, is to set specific terms for the leave with explicit language stressing both sides acknowledge it is a one-time arrangement and not a precedent for future leave requests.
Wendolowski said the actual terms of the MOUs have not been finalized so the details are not yet public. But he’s hoping this is the start of a solution to the leave issue that can bypass further legal battles. “If these three (MOUs) work, it could pave the way for more.”