Madison schools will add 20 minutes to school day to make up for sick-outs

[pintobean]

<snip>
Students in the Madison School District will have up to 20 minutes of additional classroom time each day starting Monday to make up for four days canceled last month because teachers were attending protests.

Because no additional days will be added to the calendar, most teachers will not receive additional compensation for that time, district spokesman Ken Syke said.

Madison schools were closed to students Feb. 16-18 and Feb. 21 because a significant number of teachers called in sick to attend protests against a state proposal to limit public employee collective bargaining. Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law Friday.

The School Board reached an agreement with Madison Teachers Inc. over the weekend that allowed the district to set the makeup calendar. The agreement also ensures teachers with unexcused absences will not be paid for those days and that teachers who submitted fraudulent sick notes will be suspended.
<snip>

This is the first four paragraphs. You can read the rest here:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/article_bf93a6ba-4e8e-11e0-a6eb-001cc4c03286.html

[studmoose]

1. Why Add Time - It's The Same Result As Teacher Firings

Why do they have to add time to the school day to make up for employees taking their sick time?

Their outages will have the same effect as rural Wisconsin towns who have had 25-33% staff reductions.

A few teachers taking off for a day or two, rotating their outages has less effect than permanently removing 1/3 of the teaching staff!

[FBaggins]

2. This wasn't a few people out for the day

Schools were closed.

Assuming this winter's snows used up whatever flexibility they had in the schedule, the days need to be made up.

This seems preferable to extending the year by four days... though I'm not sure how a high school would adjust their schedule. Maybe rotate which periods are extended?

[madrchsod]

3. sounds fair enough....

[Earth_First]

6. How is this fair?

These were sick-days that were owed to these working-class professionals.

They took them because their union contract states that they are entitled to 'x' amount of sick days per calendar year.

The situation behind why these teachers took a sick day is irrelevant.

They will not be compensated for their extra time, they called in sick to protect their jobs and their ability to keep their collective bargaining rights intact, a right that if they did not otherwise have; would be forcing them to accept more for less.

This is punitive punishment.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[RickFromMN]

4. When will teachers start to leave Wisconsin?

I would suggest, any teachers, looking for work, not look for work in Wisconsin.

I would suggest teachers, in Wisconsin, start looking for work outside Wisconsin.

I would suggest teachers leave Wisconsin and seek different careers, if necessary.

We can't fight the people who have money and power.
People with money and power know how to manipulate and control us.

The only thing we can do is go where we are wanted and needed.

Even if we try, we won't successfully boycott the people who have money and power.
They own too much. They control too many corporations we have grown to depend on.
We don't even know which corporations get our business any more.

We have to think like the rich and think like corporations.
Corporations leave an area when they are not wanted; they know when to cut their losses.
Corporations leave an area, for greener pastures, even when they are wanted.

Please forgive my pessimism. I really wish the best for teachers.
If a teacher asked me for advice, right now...I would advise them to leave Wisconsin.

Shame on me. The world feels bleak. I need more sunshine in my life. I feel depressed.

Hopefully, Wisconsin will have several, successful recall elections.
I worry, these recall elections will only be a temporary setback for the anti-union advocates.
The anti-union advocates will be back, sneakier than ever, chipping away, little by little.

[pintobean]

5. what a crock

[mstinamotorcity]

7. Personally I think the Teachers

should still be at the Capitol or sitting at home.They should refuse to teach. If they want to take away teachers rights to bargain then they should stay home and home school the children they want to teach. If they don't give a damn that the teachers have families to support and bills to pay then they should not sit in a building to be someone's glorified underpaid babysitter.

[Tatiana]

8. This "deal" stinks.

If teachers earned their sick/personal time, they should be able to use it. And if the teachers are essentially donating their time to make up for the school district closing schools, then teachers who were absent (and had time to cover their absence) should not be suspended. The only way teachers shouldn't be paid for days they were absent is if they didn't have enough time accurued to cover their absence.

This sounds a bit more punitive towards teachers than it needs to be.

[readmoreoften]

9. Bullshit. No insulating the politicians from the disaster they've caused.

If they wanted a full school session this year, they shouldn't've gutted collective bargaining.