Teachers in the Las Cruces Public Schools receive ten sick days and two personal days as part of their contract. But the state education department says those days should be included as absences on performance evaluations. The Las Cruces School Board only wanted to provide the state with absence data that did NOT include the personal and sick days. But some school board members appear ready to bow to pressure after Education Secretary Hanna Skandera threatened to take over the district.
In New Mexico most school districts that use teacher attendance as an evaluation performance measure allow two absences without penalty. But Las Cruces teachers are entitled to 10 sick days and two personal days as part of their union-negotiated contract.
Lori Glenn teaches at Lynn Middle School in Las Cruces. She says in her 14 years of teaching her attendance record has been above average. But this year she needed to take her 12 paid days to care for her mother in Nebraska, while she was going through hip replacement surgery.
“She needed someone to come up and help her she is 78 years old and I am the oldest daughter really the only one that is around.” Glenn said.
While Glenn was with her mother in Nebraska, the Las Cruces Public Schools buckled under the Public Education Department’s claim that “It is not within the powers of a local school board to adopt any part of a teacher evaluation policy”.
School board member Ed Frank was outraged.
“We were given a memo that came from Hanna Skandera who is the Secretary of education and she basically threatened us with being suspended unless we went back to the original agreement” Frank said.
Under that plan the attendance portion of Glenn’s evaluation would drop from exemplary to minimally effective. Glenn says leave and sick days counting against teacher performance forces teachers to make heart wrenching choices.
“All my family is all out of state, I have never gone back for funerals of extended family members. I have missed a lot over the years, because you know you just can’t fly up there and last minute.” Glenn said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fMzkKCr71I&feature=youtu.be
In Las Cruces attendance usually makes up 10 percent of the teacher evaluation.
But the National Education Association says attendance is a bigger factor for those who teach subjects without standardized test data. Glenn is one of those teachers since she instructs students in culinary arts and special education.
But many teachers could potentially need to take time off for personal illnesses or to take care of a sick family member. New Mexico’s Chronic Disease Prevention Council says 1 in 4 people over the age of 45 has been diagnosed with multiple chronic health conditions. In light of the state data we asked the Public Education department secretary to explain the rationale of penalizing people who might miss work due to illness or who might miss work for taking negotiated leave time, but they did not respond to our request.
In the memo sent to the Las Cruces School Board Secretary Skandera said some illnesses could be exempt from performance evaluations under federal law. But because Glenn thought she had 12 contractually secured leave days she says she didn’t bring back her mother’s medical documentation as was required.
“Why do you have to lay out all your health issues in front of the administration and then have it judged to see if you are worthy of having it excused.” Glenn said.
School board member Ed Frank says the federal Family Medical Leave Act still does not stop teachers from being penalized for most illnesses or for taking their personal days.
“To penalize staff for taking a day off when they are sick makes no sense at all. I mean you shouldn’t want an employee in a classroom situation when they are sick, they can’t do the job. It is not something that they are intentionally doing” Franks said.
Though uncommon for teachers in New Mexico 12 days of sick and personal leave is actually comparable to most other state government employees including those who work for the Public Education Department.
Glenn says using teacher attendance to measure performance is unfair but using student surveys was only other option offered by the state and that would have been even worse.
“I teach students with disabilities and students 11 to 14 year olds and they run hot and cold, some days they love me some days the hate you. So I am going to leave a good percentage of my evaluation up to these young children?” Glenn said.
Ed Frank says he is voting to protect locally negotiated leave. And it’s important for the Las Cruces School Board to take a stand against the state education department’s demands.
“If we assert you know the right to do what is just it might affect the rest of the state and that is why they are hankering down and trying to be aggressive about this. My motivation is try to just do what is right in this matter” Frank said.
But Frank’s fellow school board member Barbara Hall says not complying with the state education department’s demands would be too risky.
“We have to follow state law and the PED indicated that they would possibly come down and take the district, which is not good for local control. We have been fighting to have more local control.” Hall said.
Whether local or state leave policy wins out teacher Lori Glen says the amount of leave teachers will take is unlikely to change.
“I would have done it either way. It is just too bad that they penalize us for things we need to do. We need to be there for our family” Glenn said.
Other states are taking a very different approach. For instance Ohio and Nebraska are two of many states offering financial incentives to teachers who have unused paid leave time.
KRWG reached out to every school board member- Maury Castro said he is also voting to protect locally negotiated leave. Maria Flores could not be reached. Chuck Davis said he was undecided.
