I never really understood the concept of enticing people to work when they are sick. However, I believe, but am not positive, that paying people for unused sick leave is a fairly standard practice. Kind of like a bonus. $20 is not much of a bonus.

I haven't looked at the school budget, so I am undoubtedly writing out of hand, but I will comment anyway. (It never seems to stop anyone else...)

Would faculty not be better rewarded by having the schools fund the necessary supplies for their classrooms, so that teachers can focus on teaching, without using their own paychecks to buy the supplies? Seems like giving them a little more opportunity for savings now would lead to a better retirement later, and a better functioning classroom from now until then.

It boggles my mind that our kids have to rely on teachers to buy supplies first and then on the kids selling coupon books for the next layer of funding for supplies and facilities. Sure, nobody likes to pay taxes, but I'd rather pay taxes to educate our kids than pay more later to deal with the myriad consequences of an undereducated adult population.

The issue of sick pay is tricky but for the KNS to label all teachers as goldbrickers seems as ludicrous as labeling the KNS editorial staff as mentally lazy serving mostly as an echo chamber for conservative propaganda...Oh, wait...

Any employee wants to feel like they are getting a fair deal. The salary pool for all teachers covers sick pay and if it isn't equitable, employees work against the system.

I'm not sure I was able to find a good sick pay solution when I had a few hundred employees. Eventually, we simply eliminated sick pay and replaced it with extra personal vacation days based on our average sick days per annum and short term disability insurance. We let employees carry a few days over to the next year but made them take their remaining days off rather than pay them. Not perfect but more fair than the other ways we could think of.

Paying $20 for sick days is a joke but $100 seems like too much, unles the calculation is based on a time value of money pay rate projected to some future date for retirement.

Some balance is needed but I rarely find it in the Sentinel Op Ed.

Retiring teachers currently receive $20 a day for unused sick leave. Substitute teachers make $60 per day. The proposed budget would match the substitute pay, giving teachers $60/day for unused sick leave upon retirement. If they give 90 [contract] days notice of their retirement, the pay-out goes up to $100/day of unused sick leave. There's a cap on the total pay-out amount anyone can receive.

The hope is that this will reduce unnecessary absenteeism and give teachers a strong incentive to give the HR department advance notice that they are retiring so we can fill their position more efficiently and effectively. Too often we find out right before school starts that someone is retiring, which makes it harder to fill the position with the best recruits.

There are also eligibility requirements for teachers to retire, like working 30 years and/or reaching a certain age, 65 maybe? I can't recall all the details off the top of my head.

One of our goals is improving teacher retention and this improved benefit is one way to to that.

Indya Kincannon

This is a reasonable proposal and KNS is full of garbage and hatin' on teachers. Who'd a thunkit.

Forget about the Great Schools Partnership, and try partnering the central office administration with the teachers that the administration is supposed to be supporting.

Knox County schools administration MO is fear and intimidation. I heard one teacher say that her principal said that if all grades aren't on the computer this year that Roy Mullins would be coming for a visit, and you don't want the Superintendent coming to your school.

Actually, the Superintendent should be out visiting the schools and finding out what teachers need, so that they can do their jobs. Greenville Co., South Carolina used to have an ex-military officer who visited schools at least three days out of each week finding out what teachers needed and what he could do to help them.

Central office in Knox Co. visits when they have another magic "policy pill" like Max Thompson or parallel block scheduling that's always supposed to turn things around. With our Central Office it's all top down, old school management versus the workers (teachers), when it should be just the opposite.

Any organization I've been familiar with the management uses fear and intimidation when it realizes that it lacks the compentency and knowledge to gain respect from its workers. That, and what Talidapli said, is what is at the root of the problem with public education in Knox Co.

calling in sick

The boss thinks you're lying
The employee thinks you dont give a damn.

Sometimes the boss is right.
Sometimes the employee is right.

Its hard to make a policy to cure that ill.

Randy, you misstated what the editorial said. In fact, you got it backwards.

Mullins and the teachers union have argued that the plan will be good for education because teachers now burn sick leave rather than save it, and a higher payout rate will encourage them to come to work and reduce the number of substitutes in classrooms. The editorial cited that justification, then said: "If that's true, it's a sad comment on the professionalism of Knox County teachers. Is goldbricking really such a problem that bribing teachers not to fake illness will have a significant impact on our classrooms?"

The answer, of course, is no. It won't have such an impact. As the editorial went on to say: "Instead, this suggestion is just a ploy to sweeten the pot for retirees."

The News Sentinel has great respect for the professionalism of teachers, and that's why we don't believe that this will reduce absenteeism in any meaningful way as the superintendent and union suggest.

Granted, it might be wise to spend this money on improving teacher compensation, but wouldn't higher wages have more impact in the years ahead than an unanticipated bonus for educators who have accumulated years of unused sick leave and are about to leave the system?

That's the sort of questioning the editorial was intended to provoke.

Talidapali - Your rant is completely uncalled for and insulting to all of us who give our children 100% of our attention. There ARE teachers who are unfair and cruel to students. There are teachers who are constantly absent and obviously job hunting or finishing their real estate training so that they can quit teaching. There are teachers who can't spell, keep track of their students' papers or complete grading in a reasonable time frame. There are parents who are repeating the mistakes that were inflicted upon them. They need help, not blame. Too many parents, students and teachers are struggling to do the right thing and don't deserve your childless vitriol.

Is goldbricking really such a problem that bribing teachers not to fake illness will have a significant impact on our classrooms?"

I've heard retiring teachers say, "For my last year, I'm not going to work Fridays, and maybe after Christmas break, I won't work Mondays and Fridays."

And I don't blame them. I made $20 mowing a lawn 25 years ago when I was in high school. Twenty dollars is a joke.

If you want goldbricking, ask the good, and of course, professional, doctor Lindsey what he's doing these days.

Dang, a school board member and the editor of the KNS, all in one thread. Maybe Karen Carson should chime in. She's posted before. Is there any question KnoxViews is the most read issues/political blog in these parts?