Jump in teachers’ sick days affecting students, report warns

Union blames stress levels; boards hit with extra costs

WATERLOO REGION — Student achievement is hurting as teachers call in sick more often, warns an internal report prepared for 56 Ontario school boards.

Teacher absenteeism has soared by up to 29 per cent, five years after the province stopped teachers from banking unused sick days for a cash payout at retirement.

“The degree of absenteeism that is being realized across the province within the school boards systems is, intuitively, having a negative impact on student achievement,” warns the report, recently delivered to school boards and obtained in part by The Record.

“The present levels of absenteeism are both financially and culturally debilitating for school boards, their staff and, by extension, their students.”

Elementary teachers at Waterloo Region’s public and Catholic schools have called in sick 21 per cent more often over three years, the Record found in analyzing the report.

The average local elementary teacher took 10 sick days in 2015-16 after taking just over eight sick days in 2013-14.

Elementary teacher absences are escalating faster in local public schools than in Catholic schools.

Local high school teachers in the Catholic board are calling in sick more often, but public board high school teachers are not.

“I believe it does have an impact on student achievement,” said trustee John Hendry, of the Waterloo Region District School Board.

He expects younger students are most affected.

“They relate well to their normal teacher and when that teacher is missing for one reason or another, I think it takes the students a while to relate and to be able to connect to that new teacher,” Hendry said.

Teachers may be getting sicker due to greater job stress, Hendry said. He also figures teachers are in part adopting a “use-it-or-lose-it” attitude about sick days.

The board needs to work with teacher unions to find solutions, he said.

Starting in 2012-13, the Liberal government provided teachers up to 11 annual sick days at full pay as well as provisions for longer sick leaves.

“There is a just a mindset-shift

that’s occurring around how sick entitlements can be used,” said Nick Manning, spokesperson for the public school board.

Student achievement is a key local concern. Local elementary students are drifting farther behind provincial results across reading, writing and math, outpaced by students elsewhere on standardized tests. Local high school students graduate at a rate in Ontario’s bottom third.

Teacher unions dispute that student learning is damaged by teacher absences and they disagree that teachers are taking a “useit-or-lose-it” attitude to sick days.

Unions contend teachers are stressed by jobs that are becoming more difficult.

“My real concern is about the rising level of violence in our schools that’s directed toward teachers,” said Chris Stockie, local president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association.

“I think it causes an enormous amount of stress and potentially mental health-related issues in the workplace.”

“If anything is impacting student achievement, it is the continued lack of support for student behaviour, lack of support for students with special needs, lack of administrative support and leadership in schools, and increased violent incidents,” Greg Weiler, local president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said in a statement. “Teacher or staff absence is just a symptom of these larger, systemic issues.”

It costs local boards about $230 a day to hire a supply teacher. Local boards are struggling with supply teacher costs that have soared by $7 million over six years, an increase of 50 per cent.

Costs are rising in part because the boards have hired more teachers.

To help pay soaring costs for fill-in teachers, the public board has cut back on classroom pens and paper, craft supplies and glue, and headquarters’ staffing.

The report on escalating sick days was written by the School Boards’ Co-operative, a nonprofit agency created by school boards for actuarial analysis.

It highlights increasing absences by teachers, janitors, early childhood educators, education assistants, and other school board employees since 2011-12. The report found that across Ontario by 2015-16:

Elementary teachers took 29 per cent more sick days, reaching just over 11 days per average teacher.

High school teachers took 26 per cent more sick days, reaching almost 10 days per teacher.

Educational assistants took 41 per cent more sick days, reaching 16 days per assistant.

Custodians took 23 per cent more sick days, reaching over 16 days per custodian.

Over three years, early childhood educators took 37 per cent more sick days, surpassing 13 days per educator.

Absenteeism at Ontario school boards “is an expensive luxury,” Jamie Gunn, chair of the school board agency, wrote in April in summarizing the results.

Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said in a statement that new collective agreements include measures to reduce sick leaves and improve attendance.

She cited school board programs to manage absenteeism, including attendance support programs, disability support and return-to-work programs, and the promotion of a healthy work culture.

Hunter said that “Ontario is a leader when it comes to student achievement.” She cited $1 billion in savings by eliminating payouts for banked sick days.

Local spending to hire supply teachers soared past $21 million in the current school year, up 50 per cent since 2011-12, The Record found in analyzing financial documents. The cost is escalating seven times faster than teacher compensation.

Partly this is because teachers are now entitled to a paid sick day for a dentist or doctor’s appointment. When that happens another teacher has to replace them in the classroom.

Also, supply and occasional teachers now get paid sick days. This means the board could pay a supply teacher to fill in for an occasional teacher who’s replacing a regular teacher. “There are some cases … where you could be paying two-and-a-half times or three times for one position,” said Manning, spokesperson for the public board.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board says it’s drawing on funding for new students, making other budget adjustments and using “business intelligence tools” to pay for extra supply teachers.

“These efforts should mitigate future costs, but short of future centrally negotiated changes to sick banks, our tool box is limited,” treasurer Shesh Maharaj said.

Financial documents suggest that boards did not anticipate the increase in supply teaching costs when the government ended retirement payouts.

In 2012-13, the public school board trimmed its budget for supply teachers to below $10 million, only to quickly pour money back into it, noting: “Savings related to sick bank changes have not materialized.” The board’s supply teacher budget has soared past $17 million today.

Financial notes reveal the strain at both local boards as supply costs escalate: “increase due to higher usage, due to increased absences, increase in supply teacher costs due to increased sick leave utilization, spending pressure in supply teachers salaries due to the large amount of long-term illness, increase due to change to provincial sick leaves plans resulting in higher utilization.”

Hendry argues Ontario was correct to end teacher retirement payouts for unused sick says. He doesn’t feel a bonus should be awarded for not calling in sick. “You don’t get that in industry, in the real world,” he said.