Friday, April 9, 2010
By Robin Janotta
Staff Writer
Teachers attending Mira Costa’s spring break trips may lose retirement pay because of the days missed from school due to the trips. School policy stipulates that teachers cannot use personal time for more than one week without losing pay.
“Every district I’ve worked in had this rule to discourage people from taking off days before a holiday. When too many people take off, they don’t have enough subs to cover the absences,” Principal Julie Ruisinger said.
When applying for retirement, any black marks, such as excessive absence, can cause decreases in payment.
In the past, losing a single paycheck hasn’t been significant enough to cause problems. However, due to the state of the economy and a technicality in the teaching code that causes teachers to lose a year of retirement after a single dock in pay, teachers are beginning to consider shortening their spring break trips.
“I haven’t heard that any trips have been cancelled because of this, but its an issue that needs to be addressed,” social studies teacher Andy Caine said.
Next year, many teachers plan to be taking off these days to go on their educational spring break trips. This causes a conflict, as none wish to have a year taken off retirement or lose pay.
Currently, teachers and students wishing to attend these trips are required to take anywhere between one to four days off from school before spring break, days that are not excused abscenses.
“The trips themselves are not in jeopardy, but as far as taking days off beforehand, teachers may have to shorten the trips,” said French teacher Lauri Gonalons, who led the France trip.
As problematic as the situation is, organizers are not planning to cancel the trips. The trips can continue, assuming that teachers use their personal business days instead of the given compensation time that they are allowed according to their contracts.
“I have advised teachers to get this portion of the contract renegotiated if they don’t want to have their pay docked,” Ruisinger said.
While students will not have to worry about the trips being available, the quality of the trips may be affected because of the decreased length.
“It’s ridiculous that you’re paying $2,000 to $3,000 for a trip that’s shortened even more so than it already is. It would be more economical to take a roadtrip with friends,” sophomore Charley Binkow said.
Another considerable problem is the influx of substitute requests before holidays. In addition to teachers leaving on trips with students, some are taking personal leave or getting sick. As a result of these two factors, Mira Costa’s substitute community is not able to cover every teacher that leaves, which leads classrooms without teachers.
“When too many people take off, they don’t have enough substitutes to cover the absences,” Ruisinger said.
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