The governing board of a community college district may grant a leave of absence to any academic employee who has applied for disability allowance, not to exceed 30 days beyond final determination of the disability allowance by the State Teachers’ Retirement System. If the employee is determined to be eligible for the disability allowance by the system, the leave shall be extended for the term of disability, but not more than 39 months.
Governing boards of community college districts shall classify as temporary employees those persons employed to fill vacancies caused by the absence of academic employees who are classified as permanent and are receiving a disability or insurance allowance or benefit from the system or from a group insurance plan for which the employer is paying the cost or deducting the cost from the employees’ salaries.
For purposes of this section, the term of employment of the temporary employee shall be equal to the number of days of absence of the employee receiving the disability allowance.
If the term of employment extends beyond this period, the employee shall be credited for all days served as a probationary employee.