{"id":12482,"date":"2012-11-13T11:38:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T16:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12482"},"modified":"2012-11-13T11:38:20","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T16:38:20","slug":"school-board-seeks-to-calm-sick-day-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12482","title":{"rendered":"School board seeks to calm sick day fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elimination of support staff policy doesn’t signal unwillingness to discuss sick day reinstatement for bus drivers, board members say<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education members stressed Monday night that elimination of policies specifying support personnel benefits shouldn’t be taken as an unwillingness to discuss reinstating sick days for the district’s bus drivers, who lost their three paid sick says in 2011 when cost-savings measures were instituted to keep the busing program in-house.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The fact that the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education is looking at removing a policy that specifies benefits for support personnel doesn\u2019t mean that the board isn\u2019t willing to consider restoring some benefits, including sick days for the district\u2019s school bus drivers, board members stressed Monday night, during the board’s work session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe policies are in conflict with current employment agreements,\u201d said board member Kathleen Do, who chairs the board\u2019s Policy Committee, noting the change in 2011 that eliminated paid sick days for bus drivers as part of the economy measures instituted in order to keep services in-house.<\/p>\n

Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Sanville said, after consolation with district solicitor John R. Merrick, that there was general agreement that the policies should be eliminated, as employment agreements \u2014 either a formal agreement with a bargaining unit or an issued letter of benefits for those employees not represented by a union \u2014 take precedence over any policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (policy) includes all support staff,\u201d Sanville said. \u201cAnd I know that this agenda item has been a source of concern for our support staff, but we want to allay fears. The intent here is to not have an employment agreement and a policy that are not in agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanville also noted that the Pennsylvania School Boards Association was contacted and asked for a model policy on the subject \u2014 and the organization did not have any policy available on the subject.<\/p>\n

Do was among numerous board members who made it clear they were open to revisiting the sick day issue with bus drivers \u2014 but that issue and the policy issue shouldn\u2019t be seen as impacting each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note the fact that it (the sick day issue) will likely be revisited,\u201d Do said. \u201cThis (the policy removal) is strictly a redundant issue. We shouldn\u2019t even have this policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board president Eileen Bushelow asked whether those employment agreements were made public \u2014 as the policy has been. To date, they have not, Sanville said, but those letters of benefits could be published on the district Web site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t publicize employment agreements,\u201d Bushelow said, \u201ctaxpayers will want to know what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sick day issue has become an increasing point of concern for district bus drivers \u2014 apparently the only support personnel without paid sick days in the district \u2014 who say the economy measures were rushed through without discussion about the priorities of the drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was done so quickly,\u201d said Karen Finley, a transportation department employee, addressing the board on the subject.\u00a0 \u201cWe gave a list to be sent over to you. We felt not every item would be used and we did not put our stamp of approval on all those items. I feel like we got washed along by a big wave.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a number of board members made it clear they were open to discussing the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think we have to have some sort of discussion with the support staff and the administration,\u201d board member Holly Manzone said. \u201cIt (the cuts) did happen so quickly, but with the best of intentions. We really do appreciate our bus drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elimination of support staff policy doesn’t signal unwillingness to discuss sick day reinstatement for bus drivers, board members say By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The fact that the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education is looking at removing a policy that specifies benefits for support personnel doesn\u2019t mean that the board isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[2209,2210,2211,2212,1286],"class_list":["post-12482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-board-of-edcuation","tag-bus-drivers","tag-cost-savings","tag-policies","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}