The Staff Development Leave is a phenomenal benefit for regular classified staff that is similar to a faculty sabbatical. The classified SDL allows you to take a quarter or two or three to enhance your professional skills or get a substantial start on a new field of expertise, all while being paid most of your regular salary and benefits.

Each classified union has negotiated similar language to describe the SDL. The SEIU contract says that the SDL exists "to encourage and enable classified workers to enhance their value to the District through further job-related education, the upgrading of their skills, or retraining for a different career path....The leave may be used to complete interrupted studies, learn by observing methods used in industry or other educational institutions, or get a substantial start on a goal of better education." (SEIU 2001-05 agreement, p. 36)

In other words, by providing a significant amount of time away from your current job with most of your pay and benefits, the SDL can allow you to...

• keep current in your career, or
• improve your skills, or
• advance in your career, or
• prepare for a new job or career

Here are the steps to apply:

1. Download and print the application and instructions from the HR Web site: http://hr.fhda.edu/personnel/classified/
2. Read the section of your bargaining unit's current agreement related to the Staff Development Leave (see HR Web site address above)
3. Complete the application in detail (listing all planned coursework and describing all other activities)
4. Attach supporting documents (like copies of college catalog pages describing the courses you plan to take)
5. Obtain administrator and college president (or chancellor) signatures
6. Submit the application by 4:30 pm on December 15 at the latest for the following year (Do it earlier to be safe!)

Applications must be received in Human Resources by 4:30 pm on December 15. To be safe, plan to submit your package at least a week earlier. Remember that you are not only turning in the completed form; you also have to have copies of college catalog pages describing any courses you plan to take and other descriptive documentation.

Before you turn your application packet in, make a copy for yourself. (Don't plan on using the HR photocopier, though!) Be sure your application is time and date stamped by the HR staff person who accepts your application.

Bet you still have questions, right? The link below will open a PDF document with answers to some of the most common questions about the SDL:

The Classified SDL: Opportunity of a Lifetime (PDF file)