Colleagues donate sick days to Palm Beach teacher battling cancer
Love, appreciation and assistance — three things that came from one Facebook post made by a Palm Beach County teacher battling cancer.
Robert Goodman, a 10th-grade world history teacher at Palm Beach Gardens High School, was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in April. He missed 31 consecutive days of school after his first surgery, leaving him without sick days to use for the sixth months of chemotherapy that loomed ahead.
He didn’t know what to do. He knew he couldn’t make it through
work and treatments at the same time, so he took to Facebook.
As he sat in a hospital chair on July 23, with a chemo port attached to his chest, Goodman wrote a post asking fellow teachers if they had extra sick days to donate. He needed 20, otherwise he would have to report back to school on Aug. 6, despite having to go through treatment until November.
In just four days, Goodman, 56, received an overwhelming show of support, including enough sick days to get him through a full semester’s worth of absences. Educators from all over Florida — teachers, staff members, administrators and even professors from Florida Atlantic University — reached out to donate their sick days, he said.
“The reaction was absolutely incredible,” said Goodman, who lives in West Palm Beach. “I was surprised by the volume of outreach, but I wasn’t surprised that teachers were giving. Because that’s what teachers do, we give.”
As of Aug. 2, 75 days had been donated, according to a spokeswoman for the school district.
“I was hesitant to reach out for help at first, because there are a lot of people doing far worse than I am,” he said. But he knew he would need the days off if he wants to heal and eventually get back to teaching his students.
Goodman has been a teacher for more than 25 years, having spent nearly 23 of those at Palm Beach Gardens High.
He said the community outreach, especially from students, has been incredibly rewarding. Current and former students have reached out, sending love and sharing old stories. It reminds him, he said, of why he chose to be a teacher.
“It was getting a reminder,” he said. “There are hard parts of being a teacher, the many years of economic issues and system changes. [The outreach] was a nice reminder of why I really teach.”
While people have also offered him monetary donations, Goodman won’t accept them. He said the sick days that school employees have donated are basically that. “It’s not cash in my hand, but it’s paid days of work,” he said. “It’s keeping me from going bankrupt.”
Teachers receive four sick days credited to them at the beginning of the school year and continue to accrue sick time until the end of their 10-month contract for a maximum of 10 days earned each year, according to Kathy Burstein, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County School District.
These days roll over each year, and can be cashed out as paid work days come retirement or transferred to other people if they go unused.
All Florida school system employees that are part of the Florida Retirement System can transfer sick leave credits to one another, Burstein said.
Dawn McKeich, a teacher at Timber Trace Elementary School in Palm Beach Gardens, donated one of her days. She said she saw Goodman’s Facebook post shared by a friend and knew she had to help.
“I wanted to donate because I was really sick three years ago and my fellow teachers stepped up to the plate to help with my classroom and my own children at home. I wanted to pay it forward,” McKeich said.
With the 75 days donated, Goodman has qualified for catastrophic leave. His chemo treatments are set to go through October and, if all goes to plan, he expects to be back at school on Jan. 7.
These days, Goodman spends a lot of time resting — side effects of chemo like nausea, fogged memory, nerve damage and shortness of breath worsen with each treatment, he said. “It’s hard to feel human again after chemo.”
He said music is one thing that has always lit a fire in his eyes, but he’s struggled to find the inspiration and strength to sing since his diagnosis.
Now, the care and compassion that the educational community has shown him is helping rekindle the fire. “The giving has inspired me,” he said on a recent Thursday.
With little strength, but a lot of love, Goodman sang a few lines from a freshly written verse:
“Time, it’s time to give. Receive the love. Be the love. Time to let it in. Receive the love. Be the love.”