Teacher unions successfully worked against a bill Thursday that would have changed the way personal leave days are calculated for teachers. The bill was defeated in the Senate Education Committee.
Right now teachers are given 15 leave days when the school year begins. The bill would have changed that to have the teachers accrue the time off each month.
Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, introduced the bill after speaking with several county school superintendents who have reported excessive absenteeism among teachers. Kanawha County spent more than $4 million for substitute teachers last year.
West Virginia Education President Dale Lee told the committee Thursday it was only a small percentage of teachers who miss a lot of days. He says it’s a management issue.
‘If you’re having problems with a few employees you need to address that management-wise with those employees,” Lee said. “The only thing passing this would do is to hurt our newest, youngest teachers at a time when we are taking everything away from them anyway.”
Sen. Wells disagreed. He says the bill is not a take back.
“This bill does not take away any days they will have. They will get 15 days. They will simply accrue it like all of our state employees,” Wells said.
The senator admitted the bill didn’t have the support of the teachers. He noted how the unions handed out information to senators that the bill would be a labor roll call vote. Wells said he met with union leaders but they still weren’t happy. Wells maintained his support for the bill.
“My responsibility is to have public policy that’s in the best interest of everybody,” he said.
Kanawha County School Superintendent Ron Duerring said earlier in the legislative session that some teachers take advantage of the current system.
“For every day a teacher is out of the classroom that’s one less day that our students have with their regular teacher, and we think that’s important for 180-day instruction that we can have teachers there every day,” Duerring said.
The bill was defeated Thursday on a voice vote.