Travel Benefits Explained

Dear SSIS Faculty –

The question has been raised more than once: Can I use my travel benefit at Winter Break instead of during the summer?

The short answer is “yes,” but the details are somewhat more complicated. To understand how to use your travel benefit at winter break you need to understand the difference between the academic year and the fiscal year.

Your contracts run on academic years. Academic years begin on 01 July and conclude on 30 June.

The School’s fiscal year begins on 01 January and ends on 31 December.

The simple rule is this: you can use your travel benefit only once in a fiscal year.

For first year people, you can’t do this in December 2017. You came to SSIS this summer using the one-way ticket we provide at the start of contact (the 2017 fiscal year). Most of you will ask for a roundtrip ticket next summer for travel (during the 2018 fiscal year). If you were to leave after just your first two-year contract, your one-way ticket home would be paid during the 2019 fiscal year.

Let’s say that you have been here for a few years. If you used your travel benefit last summer (June-August 2017) to go home or to travel on vacation, you have used your allotment for the 2017 fiscal year. If this is the case you would not be able to claim another travel benefit this December because that is still in the 2017 fiscal year. In order to use your travel benefit in December 2018 (during the 2018 fiscal year), you would have to forego using it during the previous summer (June-August 2018).

Simply put, you can claim only one travel benefit during each fiscal year. At the start of the contract, this is the one-way flight in. At the end of the contract, it’s the one-way flight out.

I hope this clears things up for everyone. We want to be accommodating but we also have to stay within budget years when applying benefits. If you have further questions, drop in and see me anytime.

Sincerely yours,

Mark Sylte, Head of School