District over budget on funds for substitutes

Halfway through the school year, Sisters School District has already used close to 75 percent of the budget allocated to hire substitutes. The $72,000 allotted is a very small chunk of the district's overall budget - amounting to .0068 percent.

"The leaves that we're seeing are all appropriate leaves as by agreement and that we provide for. There hasn't been an excess of any one leave or any abuses," said Tim Comfort, the district's director of human resources and special education.

According to superintendent Ted Thonstad the district's three principals oversee any potential misuse of sick and personal leaves.

"If a building principal thinks a teacher is misusing sick leave, they will have a conversation with the teacher. ... It's an indication that something is wrong," Thonstad said, and the district wants to know about it.

Comfort attributes the district being so far over budget this year to the greater than normal number of staff members who are on extended leave in accord with the federally mandated Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

"This year we've had six already, and usually we have six per year," Comfort said.

The period of time staff members take off varies depending upon individual circumstances.

"Some people take from two to three months," Comfort said. "People have had operations. People have had pregnancies. We've had an adoption or two. It really varies."

Under federal law any employer with 25 or more employees must comply with FMLA and grant up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12 month period for the birth and care of a newborn, for the adoption of a child or the providing of foster care, for the care for a seriously ill immediate family member or for the employee if the person is unable to work because of a serious illness.

Thonstad told The Nugget that he is uncertain of what circumstances are driving the substitute budget to be more than allocated this year.

"You're talking about sub days, and I don't know whether those are being caused by sick leave or whether they're being caused by professional development or whether they're being caused by coaches going to athletic contests. ... We did have teachers out on extended FMLA, and that could be driving it up. ... This year everything is lumped together (into one budget) so it's awfully hard to know what's driving the costs up," Thonstad said.

Thonstad wanted to break the substitute budget into categories for the 2006-07 school year, providing one budget for sick days, another for conference attendance, another for coaches absences and the like.

The records that the High Desert Educational Services District (HDESD) provides have been very general. Thonstad did not have the necessary information to make specific allocations. Because all substitutes are provided to the district by the HDESD, the district did not have the information on its own. According to Thonstad the HDESD provides substitutes for all districts in Central Oregon.

"The ESD is finally able to produce a report that will allow us to break it down," Thonstad said.

Thonstad plans to categorize the substitute budget for the 2007-08 school year.

"I want the sub costs budgeted when we know what it's going to be used for. We know it's going to be used for staff development conferences and we know it's going to be used for co-curricular. We know we have those sub costs, and I want that split out from the sick and personal days sub budget," Thonstad said.

Teachers are provided with 10 days sick leave each year that if unused carries over to the next year. Teachers are provided with three days personal leave per year and up to five days bereavement leave. Legal leave up to 10 days is also provided if a teacher is subpoenaed to testify or called for jury duty. Legal leave is not provided if the employee is a party of interest of if the person is testifying adverse to the district.

Thonstad encourages teachers to accumulate sick leave. He sees accumulating these days as a short-term disability program. If teachers do not use their personal leave days, the district rolls them into their sick leave.

The district provides short term disability, but there is a 90-day waiting period. According to Thonstad, Social Security disability takes two years.

"What I try to do is convince employees to save sick days. They have 60 days covered in six years, so if they are disabled they can live until their short-term disability kicks in," he said.

Being over budget on the funds allocated for substitutes this year will not effect the district significantly. It will simply reduce the district's cash carry over to next year.