Napa Valley Educators' Ass'n v. Napa Valley Unified School District

This appeal presents a question of interpretation of two sections of the Education Code relating to compensation of employees absent from their duties because of illness or injury. Education Code section 44977 provides that certificated employees who are absent from duty for a period of five months or less because of illness or accident are to be paid at least the difference between their salary and the amount paid to the substitute who replaces them (differential pay). Section 44978 provides that such employees are to receive 10 days of sick leave at full pay each year, which may accumulate if not taken, and that the provisions of section 44977 are not to apply to the first 10 days of absence due to illness or accident.

Appellants Napa Valley Educators’ Association (NVEA) and Robert Hampel sought a writ of mandate to determine that the time period for differential pay under section 44977 runs consecutively to, rather than concurrently with, the period of accumulated sick leave under section 44978. The trial court denied the writ. We affirm, and hold that the period for differential pay begins immediately after exhaustion of a teacher’s 10 days of current annual sick…