Taking steps

Schools face ‘financial pressure’ as teachers call in sick

WATERLOO REGION — Local school boards say they’re taking steps to keep teachers and others on the job after a provincial audit raised the alarm about soaring sick days.

“I think it’s a little bit too early to tell how our efforts are going to pan out,” said Nick Manning, spokesperson for the Waterloo Region District School Board. “Our overall goal would be to reduce the amount of sick time our people take.”

Sick days have soared 22 per cent over three years at two local school boards.

“We are doing as much as can be reasonably expected at the local level to deal with the uptick in absences,” said John Shewchuk, spokesperson for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board.

Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk warned Wednesday in her annual report that Ontario school boards are responding ineffectively to soaring sick days that have put schools under financial pressure.

She called for improved attendance support programs, better absence reporting and analysis, and improved return-towork programs.

The local Catholic board in 2016 updated a program that aims to keep employees at work. The board is doing more to support the mental health of employees. Senior directors are briefed weekly on absences, Shewchuk said.

The public board is doing more to support employee mental health, to help people stay on the job. It has return-towork programs and modified duty for sick or injured people returning to work, Manning said.

Lysyk based her recommendations on sick days tracked by a school board agency. The Record reported on the same numbers last May.

Teacher absences lead to “decreased morale” for students, Lysyk noted. An

internal report by the school board agency said teacher absenteeism is “having a negative impact on student achievement.”

Across Ontario, school board sick days are up 20 per cent over three years, to an average of almost 12 days per employee.

In this region, employees at two boards took just over 10 sick days on average in 20152016. That’s up 22 per cent from just over eight days taken in 2013-14.

“Most of our people used their sick leave appropriately, because they are sick,” Manning said.

School boards told Lysyk that teachers are calling in sick more often after Ontario phased out retirement payouts for unused sick days.

“There is a change in attitudes to how sick days and allocated sick leave is used,” Manning said. Sick leave plans “have no doubt contributed to the rise in the number of days staff are away from work,” Shewchuk said.

Teacher unions have disagreed, arguing that teachers are stressed by jobs that are becoming more difficult. Unions dispute that classroom absences damage student learning, pointing to the quality of supply teachers.

After changes in 2012, school boards give employees up to 11 days of annual sick leave at full pay and 120 days at 90 per cent. This is more generous than sick leave plans for other public servants, Lysyk reported.

Between 2014 and 2016, local boards paid an extra $6 million annually in salaries to sick employees. That’s an increase of 23 per cent. Boards spent $5 million more to hire supply teachers.