I'm Getting Sick of This.
Here is another ploy by our autocrat, his corporate raiders and the mainstream media to target teachers and turn public opinion against them during the upcoming contract negotiations. Although this article names top administrators who make the big bucks, it will be used to punish teachers and the employees whose salaries are nowhere near as large as the salaries of the administrators mentioned in this article.
Click here for article.
Teachers receive 10 sick days and 3 personal days a year. We do not get vacation pay per se. Our salary is adjusted so that we receive it over the full calendar year. Our money is taken out each pay check to cover for the days when school is closed and to cover our pension, which we pay faithfully every pay period. If sick and personal days are not used, they roll over into the next year, which some of my former employers offered also.It should also be noted that teachers and paraprofessionals who get this ‘deferred compensation,’ are the ones who do all they can to never miss a day of work, to model the behavior expected of students. These are the same professionals who come early, stay late and are now being asked to work even longer hours, while their benefits and pensions are under attack. I have only taken off perhaps 20 days for near death illnesses over the last 12 years and work on average 60 hours a week, including Sundays during the school year.
We do not get paid for maternity, family or sick leaves. Many teachers, paraprofessionals and other staff accumulate unused sick days to deal with these concerns, especially to take care for our own children who are always left out of the equation when we are attacked. In past contracts when a colleague had a terminal illness, we were able to donate sick days to them, which was a thoughtful policy. The Board got rid of this policy at the last contract, probably because it built bonds among employees as we reached out to take care of our own.
Yes teachers are able to collect on their sick days at the end of their contract and use them toward their pension. We can only use up to a year's worth of sick days towards this and if we bank more, we loose them. The highest paid teacher makes nowhere near the 170,000+ dollars as some administrators mentioned in the article. I cashed in sick and vacation days at other professional jobs prior to teaching.
Our pay scale unfortunately does not go up near that high in Chicago. These days help us because in order to retire and collect our full pension, we have to work 34 years. Most people retire without collecting 100% of their pension. Because we receive a public pension, we are not eligible to collect any or all our social security benefits, even if we have worked jobs prior to CPS, depending on our years with the board. Career teachers can collect no social security.
Those who entered the teaching field from other careers may be able to collect some portion, but it is generally less than what they are entitled to due to the public pension. We receive no bonuses or pay outs when we retire like in other professions. So, these sick days prepare us for our "golden years".
What is ironic are the articles about teachers taking too many days off and this article about teachers not taking off days. If the retirement is such a windfall, someone needs to explain to me why many teachers upon retiring return as substitute teachers or get other jobs.
I guess I'll just call in sick on Monday.