The Freeport Area School District is going to court to try to overturn an arbitration ruling restoring Family and Medical Leave Act time off that the district required a teacher to use last year.

In a suit filed Tuesday, Jan. 7, in Common Pleas Court against the Freeport Education Association teachers union, the district asks for the Dec. 16 award to be vacated.

The award and ruling issued by arbitrator Marc Winters of Seven Fields restores the FMLA time that first-grade teacher Claudine Rumbaugh was required to use while she recovered from elbow surgery.

Rumbaugh notified the district in December 2023 that she needed several weeks off due to elbow surgery, and she had accrued enough paid sick leave to cover that time, but the district told her to apply for FMLA time off because her requested leave was due to a serious health condition, according to the suit.

In her application, she estimated she would need three months to recuperate beginning Feb. 26, 2024. The district then notified her that her leave of absence had been concurrently designated as FMLA leave.

The union filed a grievance March 13 arguing that the contract between the district and the union gives the teacher the right to decide to use or defer the use of FMLA benefits.

An arbitration hearing was held after the school board denied the grievance.

The arbitration award granting the grievance says the district violated the contract and restores FMLA leave time for Rumbaugh and any other affected union member.

Attorney Matthew Hoffman, who filed the suit on behalf of the district, said the dispute boils down to whether an employee can take 12 weeks of FMLA leave time after taking other leave time off.

Using four weeks of other time off, as an example, Hoffman said the arbitration award allows an employee to take those four weeks off followed by 12 weeks of FMLA leave time off for a total of 16 weeks off.

The district believes the four weeks of other time should be included in the 12 weeks of FMLA time, he said.

A union attorney and Rumbaugh did not return messages seeking comment on the suit.