DATE: Friday, March 21, 1997                TAG: 9703200314

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: EDUCATION 

SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  131 lines

FILLING THE GAP WHEN TEACHERS TAKE DAYS OFF

C'mon, admit it: How many times in the past year have you used personal or sick leave just to avoid a pesky boss, a stack of paperwork, customers or yet another meeting?

Need more than one hand to keep track?

Pick any major industry and you'll find that the issue of employee absenteeism has emerged at some point, in one way or another.

Likewise, it has shifted to the front burner in the school district this year, primarily because there are often too few daily substitute teachers to go around when regular teachers call in sick or take off for other reasons. Especially near a holiday. Or on Mondays and Fridays.

Over time, students themselves may pay the highest price in missed or barely tapped learning opportunities.

A central office committee that studied absenteeism among all school district employees concluded that, overall, employee absenteeism wasn't ``alarming.''

Even so, the committee's report offered several recommendations - such as the creation of an ``incentive fund'' to reward good attendance; and closer monitoring of absenteeism that fits a pattern, like ``Monday-Friday syndrome.''

Board members received the report late Thursday. At this point, it's unclear how the board or Superintendent Richard D. Trumble will formally respond to it.

But several board members, students and parents have said that it's time to scrutinize frequently absent teachers in particular - since their absences can create a M*A*S*H-like atmosphere in schools.

When the need for substitute teachers outstrips their availability, regular teachers typically pull double duty to cover for absent colleagues.

They're usually asked to give up their planning time.

In other instances, students of absent teachers are divided among the faculty, which leads to swollen class sizes.

Sometimes, ``resource'' teachers are assigned to a classroom to fill the gap - instead of doing their normal work with small groups or individual students on key reading and math skills.

``I think it causes a lot of confusion,'' said Bryan Williams, a seventh-grader at Churchland Middle School, referring to times when one of his teachers was absent and a substitute wasn't available.

On another occasion, a sub showed up, the 12-year-old recalled.

But the woman's foreign accent was so thick, he had trouble recognizing spelling words she dictated, he said.

He flunked the spelling test that day.

Some of the district's more conscientious teachers are also fed up with the situation.

In the past four months, music teacher Connie Liverman has suffered from pneumonia, bronchitis and a sinus infection.

Despite her illnesses, she said she missed only four days of work because of health problems.

``I keep right on pushing,'' said Liverman, a district veteran who teaches at both S.H. Clarke Academy and Churchland Academy.

``. . . What kind of example are we setting for the children when we're missing more days than we expect them to miss?'' she said, referring to teachers with questionable absences.

It's not unheard of to find some city schools with 7 percent or more of their teachers absent on any given day, especially a Monday or Friday.

The district was hit hard a few weeks ago - on Friday, Feb. 28.

At Douglass Park Elementary, for example, five teachers - or 10 percent of the teaching staff - requested daily subs.

At Hodges Manor Elementary, two requests were made - representing 6 percent of that school's teachers.

Overall, 11 percent of the district's classroom teachers wanted a daily substitute that day.

On paper, Portsmouth has a total pool of more than 200 approved substitute teachers.

To qualify, a candidate must pass a criminal-records check, attend an in-house training session, undergo fingerprinting and have a certain amount of college credit.

The number of daily subs actually available to work fluctuates. On a typical day, the district needs about 70.

Earlier this week, School Board member and Old Dominion University education professor David Joyner said he hoped employee attendance issues - including the pattern of Monday-Friday absences - could be dealt with from the bottom up. That could prevent the board from taking some kind of get-tough approach, he said.

``With the emphasis that's now being placed on the problems, I'd like to see the principals get with their teachers and discuss the issues, work them out together. . . ,'' he said.

THE COMMITTEE THAT STUDIED employee absenteeism reviewed everything from incentives that might improve attendance to how Portsmouth's pay rate for daily substitute teachers, also known as ``short-term'' subs, compares with area districts.

Portsmouth's wage for such subs - $33.25 daily for those without a college degree and $41 for those with one - is less than other South Hampton Roads school systems.

Among those systems, Chesapeake pays such substitutes the most, with a flat daily rate of $49.34.

In its budget for the upcoming school year, the Portsmouth School Board included $136,000 to increase the pay rate for all types of substitute workers; or to simply hire more of them next year.

While some teachers undoubtedly play hooky, the perception of teachers trading chalk for a day to chill out at home or on the golf course doesn't always give a true picture.

Like anyone else, teachers can get sick. And they, too, have family emergencies and responsibilities beyond their jobs.

Professional conferences or workshops also may keep them away from the classroom for a few days at a time.

According to district policy, an employee's supervisor must approve leave time in advance; and the appropriate paperwork has to be turned in.

A doctor's note may be required if sick leave is taken for three or more consecutive days.

Unauthorized absences may result in disciplinary action.

That's what the rules say, anyway.

In its report, the committee of teachers, administrators and other workers cited the ``lack of consequences for not working'' as a possible reason for employee absenteeism.

At some schools, peer pressure discourages teachers from staying out too much.

But it's really up to principals to handle faculty attendance problems, by confronting staffers who have excessive absences and documenting the patterns in performance evaluations, if necessary.

Several schools already rely more on carrots than sticks, offering teachers gift certificates or savings bonds for keeping absences to a minimum.

But at the board's retreat earlier this year, several board members suggested that a crackdown of some sort might be overdue. ILLUSTRATION: Photo illustration/JIM COLLINS/The Virginian-Pilot

{Graphic]

TEACHER ABSENTEEISM

[Includes chart]

[For copy of graphic, see microfilm]

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