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Hernando Today

Compensated Absences Pay Off For Local Teachers, District Employees

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By LINNEA BROWN

Hernando Today

Published: September 3, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Saving up your sick days can add up for employees of the Hernando County School District.

With 197 workdays per year, Hernando County teachers get six personal and four sick days per year, or one day per month. Whatever is not used is then converted to sick days and accumulates. Any unused days can be cashed out when the employee leaves the district or retires, based on whatever their hourly rate is at that time.

This can add up. For a new teacher that started at $12 an hour, those sick days could be worth $60 an hour by the time they retire. If a teacher banked all 10 sick and personal days each year over a 30-year career and retired at $60 an hour, the payoff would be $139,500. That's based on a 7.75-hour work day, working about 10 months out of the year. Top paid teachers with a doctorate degree and 27 years-plus working in the district currently make about $37 an hour based on a 197-day contract.

"You couldn't get that in an annuity plan," Hernando Classroom Teachers Association union president Joe Vitalo said of the district's compensated absences plan. "We try to tell teachers that (not getting sick) is their best investment plan."

The net increase to compensated absences for 2007-08 for unused sick and vacation was $1,547,000, according to Deborah Bruggink, the school district's finance director, and the net decrease to compensated absences for sick and vacation paid out for 2007-08 was $1,027,000.

Budget for sick and vacation payouts for 2008-09 is $1,003,000, she noted.

Unused sick leave days may also be transferred from other educational institutions in Florida at the same rate, according to the district's benefits brochure.

The district's 12-month, noninstructional personnel are entitled to earn paid vacation leave, earned at a rate that ranges from half of a day per month to one and a half days per month, depending on length of employment. Vacation days also roll over from year to year.

Any time an employee is absent or off campus, they must fill out a standardized form stating their reason for being gone. The form gets submitted to the timekeeper at their work location, who reports the absence to payroll. All forms must be submitted properly before a classroom's substitute can be paid.

Employees are not reimbursed for receiving higher education, but do earn a salary based on the highest degree earned.

Whether an individual needs it or not, employees are entitled to a group health insurance policy through Blue Cross Blue Shield, with five plans to choose from. The school board contributes $394.20 per month to each person's policy.

The district also provides life insurance - $20,000 if the employee does not choose a health insurance plan, and $10,000 if they do - and optional group dental and vision insurance, paid for by the employee. They may also sign up for disability policies, a flexible spending account and other options, also paid for by the employee.

Employees are part of the Florida Retirement System, controlled by the state and considered one of the strongest retirement systems in the country. If they do not sign up for an individual contribution plan, they will be enrolled in the state's pension plan, with a state-controlled percentage contributed by the school board each month as part of the employee's benefits package.

The amount an employee with get in retirement benefits is based on the average of an employee's last five years of employment, further narrowed down by a computerized formula of how many years the employee has worked and what their risk ratio is.

But saving up the compensated absences is where the real payout can come in - and it's best for students and learning because it prevents the need for a substitute, Vitalo added.

"There are times teachers are really sick, but they're hurting themselves in the long run," Vitalo said, recalling the circumstance of a local married couple who recently retired from teaching. They cashed in years of saved sick days and were able to pay off their house and vehicle.

"They didn't have any new bills going into retirement - because we all know what (employees) make when they retire isn't enough," Vitalo said.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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