Delaware schools handcuffed by state law that dictates expensive paid sick day policies

BRANDYWINE, Del. – There’s no doubt that state officials everywhere get tired of local school district officials constantly demanding more money to meet their needs.

But those states that impose expensive policies on school districts create their own grief.

If they refuse to give districts the tools to manage their own costs – particularly labor costs – they can expect their phones to keep ringing with calls from desperate school officials.

The state of Delaware’s statute regarding paid days off for public school employees is a good example of this problem.

The law gives school employees one paid day of sick leave per month, which means 10 days for 10-month employees, 11 days for 11-month employees and 12 days for year-round employees. The law encourages the use of sick days by giving employees three personal days per year, which are charged as sick days.

Those regulations end up costing the state’s schools a great deal in terms of instruction. Numerous studies have demonstrated that students lose a lot of learning time due to teacher absence.

They also cost schools a great deal of money at a time when they don’t need extra costs.

A recent news item, for example, noted that the Christina school district has a $6 million budget deficit and will be asking voters to approve new taxes to cover that debt.

An Intent post about the Brandywine school district notes that the district has been thriving “despite budget cuts” that have curtailed normal professional development activities for educators.

The Christina district reported employees taking 21,557 sick days and 7,432 personal days in 2013-14. The district reported 2,888 active employees, which means they averaged about 10 paid absences per employee.

The district did not report how much was paid in salary to absent employees, but did report spending $1.8 million in wages for substitute teachers.

The Brandywine school district reported employees taking 6,209 sick days and 2,321 personal days in 2013-14. The district has 1,213 employees, according to its website, which means they averaged about seven days of paid sick and personal days.

The district paid out $2.3 million in salary to teachers and other employees for sick and personal days. It also paid $659,634 in wages to substitute teachers.

The same state law also forces school districts to pay a lot of money to employees with good attendance. According to the statute, employees are allowed to cash out up to 90 days of unused sick time at retirement.

In 2013-14, the Christina district was forced to pay out $412,358 in compensation for unused sick days while the Capital district paid out $195,531. The Brandywine district did not report how much it paid out in this category.

Blame the unionized socialist "teachers" who are employed to "teach" our children insane leftist ideologies, junk science ("global warming"), hatred for America, revisionist pseudo history, and "gay appreciation", instead of actual valid educational curriculum and how to survive in the world on one's own.

the false narrative about teachers is that they are poorly paid etc...and they have to spend SOOO much money of their own....you know, buying the construction paper to put stuff on their boards....

truth is, they have a skimpy schedule....their degrees are among the easiest to obtain...they take SICK leave plus other time off during the year despite the fact they work no weekends, no holidays, no summers, no Christmas/Easter/springbreak/Thanksgiving/Memorialday/Martinluther King....etc etc.....they have so much time off already and get paid a healthy salary....or lets not forget the "sabbatical" time they get off either....

and yet, they'll scream that they need paid days just so they can sit around an "plan" and "talk" about what they're going to do.....

This IS about Delaware , a state that burns a third of it’s budget on ‘education’ and runs up the cost of any state infrastructure project by imposing a ‘prevailing wage’ for any labor required on the job. The union grip is strong in little blue Delaware....

Gee, the government should enforce that Teachers never get sick, never have to go to the doctor or the dentists. And of course never have babies or go in for surgery.

Of course, teacher's kids never get sick either.

Of course they need less sick days than their similarly employed counterparts just because they are that more virtuous.

/Sarcasm OFF

7-10 sick days a year isn’t really that much. Most fulltime workers get that. However, it would be interesting to see how many additional holidays/personal/vacation days they get in addition to those sick days.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.