Don't they get enough days off as it is?
From the comments:
Mr. Molitor said ...
While I'm not a school teacher myself I thought that this would be good to bring to the school teachers' attention who read this.
Very interesting article in the Tribune today about teacher absenteeism....
Selected quotes:
Driven by parental concerns about teacher absenteeism, the Chicago Public Schools for the first time will start scrutinizing schools with high numbers of teachers taking sick days.
For each of the last six school years, Chicago teachers missed an average of 12 unscheduled days in their 39-week work year. Their current contract calls for 10 sick days and three personal days.
By comparison, salaried employees nationwide take an average of five sick and personal days during their 50-week work year, according to a 2004 survey of 536 employers by a major human resource consulting company.
I personally love the union president quote in response to the School board president ...
"This is important to parents. There's never been a spotlight on this, and that's a mistake," Schools Chief Arne Duncan said of the new scrutiny
"The district is using this as an intimidation tactic," union President Marilyn Stewart said. "Teachers may take off for a lot of reasons, either because they are sick or frustrated. It's no one's business. I don't see why it has to be public. Why do parents care, if it's not tied to test scores? You can clean your house without letting everyone see your dirt."
The fact that a school official doesn't think parents should care about this seems strange to me. Maybe I'm missing something. Could someone explain this to me?
posted by teacherman @ 12:12 PM
6 Comments:
"It's no one's business ... Why do parents care, if it's not tied to test scores?" --Union President Marilyn Stewart
Maybe this is one of the reasons why test scores are so low, bitch! As a teacher, I get fed up with students being out of control all the time because there are so many teachers out each day. Like many of my colleagues, I'm saving up my sick days for my last year in the system, when I'll just call in sick for the entire year.
Anyway, in five years, I've only used six sick days, many of which were legit. One was to go see a White Sox playoff game ... hehehehe
I don't see how looking at this data will really have an impact beyond possibly placating parents. I agree it's important and it pisses me off when I see people abusing sick days at school (it bothered me when I was corporate, as well), but it is so tough to fire "bad" teachers that few principals go through that process.
Anyway, naughty teachers aren't going to be influenced by principals that tell them they are taking too many days off when it won't have any effect on their pay. And especially if they aren't planning on retiring out of CPS.
Well, Mr. Molitor, how many sick days do you get each year? Do you use them all? You'd be stupid not to, right? Teachers get 10, so they use 10.
I usually take three days off for frustration alone ... sexual frustration that is!
Since sick days cumulate, it's really stupid to take them for nonsense reasons, but CPS is the real dummy. Everybody gets paid because of the amount of education, not their skills, not their attendance and not if their students' scores go up. In the corporate world you're paid for more than what's in your educational resume. Lots more is taken into account when you get that raise. NOT that way in schools!!
Well, I am not the anonymous poster above, just a lazy poster who finds it easier this way. Anyway, in regards to sick days, my company does not have "sick" days, we have "pto" days which means personal time off days. (I'm fortunate enough that I get 30 of them). So given that my sick days and pto days are one, I take time off when I need it. In fact we are encouraged to use all of our days, since we do not get paid for the days we don't use at the end of the year, like most other corporate companies.
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