Today we hold that the parties’ longstanding, agreed-upon method for calculating and coordinating classified employee differential leave and vacation leave is invalid under California law. *866I reluctantly agree with this conclusion based on the clear and plain meaning of Education Code section 45196. However, I write separately to underscore the unfortunate plight of the Colton Joint Unified School District and school board (collectively, Colton) and other school districts that must now adjust their longtime and well-settled practices for calculating differential and vacation leave times. More to the point, I wish to emphasize that, in these uncertain economic times, Colton and other school districts are left to face the budgetary and administrative consequences of our decision. If there is to be any remedy to this unexpected and unfortunate situation, it lies with the Legislature.
With the agreement of the California School Employees Association (CSEA), Colton has for more than 20 years coordinated differential leave with both sick and vacation leave, as set forth in article 12.7.6 of the collective bargaining agreement. The purpose of this negotiated arrangement was to benefit employees by allowing sick or injured employees to collect their full pay, rather than merely the 50 percent pay provided by differential leave, for as long as their accumulated benefits would allow. The 100 days of differential leave was intended by the parties to be a safety net for employees with insufficient sick and vacation leave time. The parties did not bargain for the 100 days to be a minimum guarantee for those employees fortunate enough to have banked extended amounts of vacation time. The method for calculating leave time, for which Colton argues in this appeal, is the one contemplated and agreed to by both parties over the years, and is the method that Colton has executed and crafted its budget around for the past two decades. Colton and other school districts must now depart from this long-accepted practice because, as we recognize here today, the Legislature saw fit to draft section 45196 in such a way as to preclude school districts and employee representatives from working together freely to balance its costs and benefits.
The result of our decision here today is that differential leave is no longer merely a safety net. Rather, the 100 days is now a minimum amount of time that Colton must provide full or partial pay for a sick or injured employee. This is even before considering whether the employee has additional hours of paid vacation time they may use to extend their paid leave beyond the 100 days.
I agree with counsel for Colton that, especially in these difficult budgetary years, school districts and their local bargaining units are in the best position to control costs by negotiating for specific benefits and calculation of leaves *867in their agreements.1 However, the Legislature has for whatever reason chosen to require that vacation leave and differential leave run consecutively (“exclusively” in Ed. Code, § 45196), thereby extending differential leave beyond 100 days for many employees. We hold here today that the Legislature has effectively, but perhaps unwisely, prohibited school districts and employees from bargaining over coordination of vacation benefits with the 100-day differential leave. Perhaps now the Legislature would care to bring some common sense back into the law on this subject by returning these decisions to the place they belong — the bargaining table.
As a consequence, I reluctantly agree with my colleagues that we must set aside over two decades’ worth of collective bargaining history and leave calculation practice because they directly conflict with the clear and plain language of Education Code section 45196. Therefore, I must concur with both the reasoning and result of this opinion.
A petition for a rehearing was denied February 17, 2009, and appellants’ petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied April 29, 2009, S171097.
On pages 23 and 25 of Colton’s opening brief, Colton quotes from the veto messages of Governors Wilson and Davis, respectively, regarding bills intended to amend Education Code section 45196 to be more consistent with CSEA’s position in this appeal. Both governors stressed that extended sick leave and differential leave benefits are issues better dealt with at the bargaining table than by the Legislature. Governor Davis wisely commented, “I am concerned that this bill may cause a significant increase in costs for local school . . . districts .... Therefore, I believe that this extended sick leave benefit is better dealt with through collective bargaining. In the bargaining process experienced negotiators can find savings to offset and balance out the cost.”