Monday, June 15, 2009

Teacher Leave

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Full-time LCPS Employees who do not have annual leave (mostly those who don't work year-round) are allowed three days of personal days each year by School Board policy. There are three times when policy prohibits use of that leave:
  1. The first five instructional days and the last five instructional days of the school year
  2. On any teacher in-service or orientation workdays
  3. When in the judgment of the immediate supervisor a qualified substitute cannot be secured
The administration has asked that the Board add a fourth restriction, and that is that personal leave my not be used "to extend any holiday period by taking personal leave on a student day before or after the holiday."

This is a result of the Board's cutting the substitute budget by over 20% for the next school year. The Administration is trying to cut down on the spikes in leave that create a high demand for substitutes. Teachers argue that this is too broad a brush, that principals will be able to deny leave based on availability of substitutes. The Superintendent counters that many of these leave plans, particularly around holidays, are made months in advance before the availability of substitutes can be known.

I'm not sure where I stand on this one; it has been sent to the Personnel committee for further review and there I'll have opportunity to ask questions and float some ideas before this comes to the full Board again. I'll ask the perspective of some of the principals and teachers I know also. I believe there are options for implementing this without a policy change. For instance, the Superintendent can direct principals not to approve leave more than 1 week in advance during the upcoming school year, or by however much lead time substitute availability can be known.

In any case, the LEA has asked its members to weigh in, and the School Board is getting dozens of emails from teachers as a result. This led me to contemplate the differences between public and private employment. My employer implements changes in HR policies in reaction to various conditions fairly commonly, and it would be simply bizarre for me to write to the President or the Board and lobby against the recent changes in paid time off that they implemented. On the one hand they aren't a public body as the School Board is, their deliberations are in private. On the other hand, this is a publicly traded company in which I own stock, so I do have a vote in the Board's membership.

The expectations for employment are different as well though... it isn't uncommon for private sector employees to switch companies, but public employees are to some degree expected to make a career of it, and much of our HR policies are intended to encourage long-term (even career-length) employment. In addition, LCPS has a virtual monopoly on K-12 education in Loudoun County. So an LCPS teacher can't contemplate switching to a different employer with the same freedom that I can.

This was just something I was thinking about as I go through these many teacher emails.
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13 comments:

  1. How would a policy that tells teachers when they can't use their personal leave help cut down on the total number of days used? The employees will still have those days to use at his/her discretion. No money is being saved. Please add anyone trying to become a substitute to your list of people with whom you will consult. You might find out that the sub pool would be much greater IF the process weren't so onerus and time consuming. You might hear some stories of people in personnel making errors that cause the applicant to start months of work all over again.
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  2. How about a policy on Superintendent leave? Like, maybe having him spend more time here in Loudoun County instead of being a roving educational ambassador to the world?
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  3. Teachers received no pay increase this year. Why would you want to take this from them as well? It saves NO money at all. It is Dr. Hartick's pet peeve and that is all it is.
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  4. Anon, what Hatrick wants from this School Board he gets. Haven't you figured that out by now? Will the LEA be campaigning for the coming School Board challengers in 2011? They better be.
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  5. The way I understand this problem is that they want to reduce the number of substitutes "on call". Therefore, there will be a lesser amount of subs available for the days when they are needed most.

    I may be off here, but it sounds like they will be spending the same amount on subs as previous years because the teachers will still use the same amount of personal leave days (just not on the days before/after holiday breaks). Spending the same amount + fewer subs = a logistic nightmare for building principals.

    When all else fails, the teacher could just take a sick day instead of a personal day before/after the break.
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  6. Is there a middle ground here? Maybe a certain percentage of teachers from each building could be allowed to use personal days around holiday weekends? It is not unusual to have family events like weddings and other large celebrations over Columbus Day and Memorial Day and teachers should not be restricted from attending these events that the rest of us enjoy. On the other hand, getting substitutes for a third of a school can be an unsuccessful endeavor as subs may also be unavailable. Bringing in parents to babysit or combining classes is a loss of an instructional day.
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  7. Dr. Hatrick is a good superintendent and has/is good for Loudoun County. However, he is way off base on this issue. Don't let him fool you here. There is no way this will save money for the school system. Teachers still get to use three personal days, whether they use them before or after a holiday, a substitute still has to be paid. What is the purpose of this change? It is something that will only cause ill feelings among the staff and a loss of esprit de corps. Not one board member should vote yes on this. They should send a message that they support the teachers on this one.
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  8. Subs this morning in my son's school so the teachers can make class assignments for next year. Why can't this wait until next week?
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  9. Sew Creative,
    Perhaps your sons' administrator was providing a time for teachers to collaboratively plan. Putting heads together to reflect on the year and sketch out plans for the next while the current year's successes and failures are still fresh is a great idea. Since it is (finally) the last week of school, instruction is weaning. This is the best time of year to provide professional development for everyone.
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  10. Bluestar,
    I agree that little instruction is being done at this late date, but, no they were assigning students to classes for next year. This is a necessary and thoughtful process, but using up precious substitute dollars to do it during school hours in the last week of classes is not the most advantageous utilization of resources. Cuts will continue for the coming school year and I would hate to see instructional materials (or a special ed teacher) cut for this one very specific activity.
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  11. So it would be better to expect teachers to do this AFTER school when they wouldn't need to pay subs? That sounds like a fair idea, considering teachers are already working over time every day and haven't had any increase. Real fair option!
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  12. In thinking about my own circumstance, my company also froze salary increases this year, as result of economic conditions. As partial compensation, they granted us an extra week of vacation time.

    Note that in my role (accounting), we've always been subject to restrictions on leave based on when the work needs to be done (i.e. end of the month). It's the same at all employers for this role. I see no issue in creating a restriction on leave around certain critical time, as you already have (end of year and start of year). However, it's neither a cost saving measure nor an ethical measure to restrict leave taking during non-critical instructional times. No one who's been to school can claim with a straight face that significant learning takes place on the day before or after a long break. Teachers are people first and should be respected as such.

    The only valid reason for revising the leave policy is if instructional objectives are not being met. If this is all about money, there are other ways to skin this cat. For example, teachers can take turns minding a class during what otherwise would be a planning period on an occasional basis. On days with large expected absences, all-school assemblies or special days can be created.

    As a "roving educational ambassador", I'm surprised that this was the best Dr. Hatrick could conceive of. Look to private schools and other governmental organizations with critical needs (i.e. fire, police) for their policies beyond the ideas presented above. I'll bet you'll find ways to treat teachers like humans and not just resources.
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  13. My problem is this...we still have these days (13)...however, we're being asked not to use them and when the substitute money is up there will be no more subs and we are forced to separate our classes into groups and distribute them to a different class for the day. This is a huge waste of time for many classes. The students will have no clue what is going on and it will result in a day of videos and games. They should have funded the subs. Also, putting a restiction against days before and after a holiday is just ridiculous. We are adults and many of us have family events elsewhere. We can be responsible and take a day off here and there...just don't abuse it. We're being asked this year for Dr.'s notes for appt.'s. This is nuts!
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