WHEELING, W.Va. — While just more than half of school teachers in West Virginia missed 10 or more days of classes last year, Ohio County Schools is not seeing nearly that many absences.
According to the Department of Education, around 37-percent of teachers in Ohio County have missed 10 or more days compared to the state average of 53-percent and only 6-percent in the county miss more than 20 days compared to the state average of 11-percent.
Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller appeared on Friday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline’ to discuss her school system’s teacher absenteeism, less than 15-percent of the state average.
Miller said since taking over as head of the county three years ago, absences among teachers and school service personnel have gone down.
“We went to the basics,” Miller said of bucking the trend. “I sent letters to people, I thanked people for coming to work. We had outstanding community support and it was the little things that seem to make a huge difference.”
VIEW: Spreadsheet of teacher absences by Department of EducationÂ
The school system also set up a bonus incentive for teachers of $1,350 to miss less than 15 days of class. Under their 200-day contracts, teachers in West Virginia are allotted 12 days of leave that might also be sick days plus three personal days.
The state legislature also included in the recently passed education bill an extra personal day to bring the number to four and a $500 bonus for a teacher if they miss less than four days.
In total, a school worker in Ohio County can earn $1,850 by missing less than four days of school.
“There’s nothing more important than having a highly qualified teacher in the building, there’s nothing more important than having your bus driver that you are familiar with pick your child up every morning,” Miller said.
“We do have outside situations and we just needed to do our best as to how we can encourage our employees to be at work and encourage them to be there.”
Chair of Senate Education Committee, Patricia Rucker (R-Jefferson), appeared on Friday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline’ as well and agrees that outside situations for teachers are the same as any other profession.
“Teachers are parents in addition to being teachers,” she said. “They have things that they must do including sometimes the kids get sick or it’s their pets. All of us have obligations that sometimes come up.”
Rucker said she is working with her local counties in the Eastern Panhandle on ways to incentivize school workers like Ohio County’s system.
Berkeley County, which Rucker serves, reported $4.5 million spent in the 2018-19 school year on substitute teachers. Kanawha County Schools spent around $3.7 million and Monongalia at $2.4 million, which Rucker said is better to go to the qualified educator to be there.
“What works for Ohio County may not work for Jefferson County,” Rucker said. “I know when discussing with my local county school boards, they are trying to come up with unique and creative ways to handle the situations that they have.”
Miller said the county will continue to track days of every school worker because it’s a system that values the educator and works for the students.
“We value our educators,” Miller said. “Those are their days, they are entitled to use those days. We were looking at the days above and beyond.”
“The people that were abusing our days no longer work for us. Everybody in Ohio County knows that we are tracking days. We are tracking it because we care and it matters to our kids.”