Methuen, MASSACHUSETTS

SICK (LEAVE) ABUSE

August 6, 2007 - Methuen school district has a proposed new policy on "sick abuse."

The policy, which has already been adopted for the contracts of other school employees, including administrators, is short on detail.

It does not say what discipline should be taken and only loosely defines "situations which suggest abuse" as "more than four absences which suggest a pattern."The vague language is on purpose, Superintendent Jeanne Whitten said.

Instead of functioning as a punitive tool, the policy is meant to help identify sick-leave abuse and to encourage employees and administrators to work out a solution, she said.

Under the policy as proposed, a meeting with a union representative is scheduled if a principal or supervisor suspects abuse by an employee. The supervisor then has five days to notify the employee if the "excuse for absence was deemed unacceptable." If discipline is to be used, the superintendent and union president are informed immediately.

The union president is "willing to consider" the proposal, but if the policy is implemented, the union will participate in any disciplinary discussions about sick-leave abuse.

School Committee member Gary Marcoux pointed to the lack of union resistance to the policy as proof that it is worth implementing.

TT - The problem with such news stories is that they leave more questions than answers.

Administrators get 18 sick days a year.
How many days do teachers get?

Exactly how many sick days were taken in the last school year by teachers?
How many teachers exceed the average?

Who exactly is in charge of their schools? The administrators or the union?

The Eagle Tribune knows the answers to those questions because they investigated and produced a series called "Marked Absent" written in 2003 on just this topic.

The region's attendance records also show patterns that suggest individual sick leave abuse. The analysis found more than 150 teachers who used a disproportionate amount of sick time on Mondays, Fridays or next to regularly scheduled breaks. Those teachers used a week's worth of sick time or more in 2001-02, at least three-quarters of which came before or after weekends or holidays.

And,

All those absences added up, the analysis found. More than 75,000 days taken throughout the region, including nearly 50,400 sick days, represented more than enough time to fill every teaching slot in the Gloucester school district for the entire year.

Read the whole thing. It's worth the time to find out what questions you should ask of your school board.

July 31, 2007 -The Eagle Tribune series on unfunded pension costs also makes good reading.
July 27, 2007 - A bookkeeper for the Methuen School Department was arrested for selling cocaine.

All in all, a great newspaper.