I cannot believe the nerve of Demetrious Johnson in complaining about the absenteeism of St. Louis Public School teachers! Using Mr. Johnson’s facts as a base, I calculate that if “2,714 teachers took a total of 21,605 days off,” that means that almost 4,000 teachers took 0 (zero, none, nada) days off. More math: 21,605 sounds like a lot, but that is less than 10 days per teacher. If the district policy is followed, only 6 of those days were paid. So if a teacher gets sick, has a family emergency, must care for a loved one, or experiences a death in the family, that all comes from the 6 PTO (Personal Time Off) days a year. Those six days are not classed as “sick days,” rather must be used to cover all reasons for which one must be away from work.
As for the “two-month vacation” mentioned by Mr. Johnson: I can’t speak for other teachers, but I am on a 10-month contract and do not get paid for my two months without students. “Vacation?” I use much of the time to prepare for the next year, and I know many teachers do the same – without pay. In addition to the jobs many take over the summer to help tide them over the two months without a paycheck from the district.
I am not complaining. I chose to be a teacher and am proud of the work I do, but it hurts when people who seem to know little or nothing of the actual conditions under which we work set themselves up as critics of those who would try to improve the situation for the students, the teachers, the city and ultimately, also for you, Mr. Johnson.
Tom Bruce
Roosevelt High School