The court affirms the New Jersey Commissioner of Education's final agency decision finding petitioner Stephanie Angus is entitled to sick leave under N.J.S.A. 18A:30-1 during the period the Board of Education of the Borough of Metuchen excluded Angus from working in her position as a tenured teacher, pursuant to a directive from the New Jersey Department of Health, because of her exposure to a person who tested positive for COVID-19. The court determined Angus qualified for sick leave under N.J.S.A. 18A:30-1's plain language, which in part defines sick leave to include an absence from an employee's "post of duty . . . because he or she has been excluded from school by the school district's medical authorities on account of a contagious disease."
The court rejected the Board of Education's claim N.J.S.A. 18A:30-1 qualifies an employee for sick leave when the employee is excluded from school "on account of a contagious disease" only where the employee personally suffers from the disease. The court reasoned the Board's interpretation is not supported by the statute's plain language. The court also determined acceptance of the Board of Education's interpretation of N.J.S.A. 18A:30-1 would render the exclusion-from-work-on-account-of-a-contagious-disease sick leave qualification superfluous because the statute otherwise separately defines sick leave to include an employee's absence from work where the employee suffers a personal disability due to an illness.