Apparently tired of taking it on the chin about its new employee attendance requirements, Houston ISD scheduled a special news conference Wednesday to announce what it sees as a positive for students — namely a 43 percent drop in the number of high absentee cases (taking off more than 10 days) among its teachers
This means, said HISD Chief Human Resources Officer Jessica Neyman that more students benefit by receiving instruction from the same teacher on a more consistent basis. She reported that the number of teachers absent for more than 10 days at this time last year was 311. This year it’s 180.
The new rules which began with the start of this school year, are the same for all employees, she emphasized. Each employee is guaranteed five days of leave from the state and another five days from the district if they work a normal nine month school year.
After 10 days — it can be as many as 15 if an employee has leave time accrued from previous school years — the next day the employee takes off slides that person into unpaid leave status, Neyman said. .
If the extra days are medically-related (there are some other exceptions such as bonding with a newborn) , HISD hits the pause button, Neyman said. while HR checks with the employee to make sure they understand what other leave options may be open to them. HR personnel will help guide them through the process, she says.
At the same time, HR is in contact with the employee’s manager in part to make sure that nay disciplinary action is not going forward, she said.
But once that review has been done by HR in consultation with the HISD law department and there are no other avenues available, that person will be notified their employment is being terminated, she confirmed..
In recent months, besides the confusion there has been over when exactly an HISD employee could be terminated, there have been any number of reports that teachers are upset and afraid about the new regulations. Also drawing a lot of attention was the case of HISD custodian Consepcion Zapata as reported by a number of Houston outlets who said she was fired after taking time off when her husband was diagnosed with cancer and died.
In acknowledgement of the general confusion about leave, Neyman said her department has placed a highlighted version of the new attendance policy on the HISD website.
Asked about the reports that teachers are afraid that even if they take no more than their allowable leave days, that they’ll get memos or being written up, Neyman responded quickly:
“That’s really concerning to me because II would hate for that to be that they don’t understand all the leaves available to them.”
Teachers and other employees sometimes need to be out, Neyman said, and they were entitled to their state- and district -mandated leave. At the same time, however, there are further stipulations tied to the leave. Yes, they can take up to 15 days but they aren’t allowed more than two days in a row that are discretionary and thanks to a Board of Managers vote this fall, they must supply a doctor’s note if they want to take more than three consecutive days of sick leave.
At the same time she called the HISD attendance policies generous, noting they have a one week fall break, two weeks and a couple days for a winter break, a one week break in the spring and two months in the summer. In addition there are nine district holidays spread out through the school year.
Neyman said she couldn’t talk about individual cases but she urged people to look at little deeper into the cases brought up for public consumption, asking among other things — why didn’t this person have any accrued time from previous years.
“Our employees deserve leave policies that are also fair and consistently applied across all employee groups,” Newman said. “If we create exceptions then the very rule we put in place is no longer the rule.”
And echoing the mantra from Superintendent Mike Miles who has been the driving force behind the new absenteeism policy, she said, “Too many HISD students are behind in their learning, This has been the case for years. And the problem is even worse, as we all know, after the pandemic. We don’t have unlimited time to help our students get on track. This is why the district is working hard and with urgency to significantly improve instruction and academic achievement.
“Obviously we cannot do this without our teachers present in the classrooms. There are only so many instructional days in the academic year. That means every one of those instructional days is precious. So teachers must report to work consistently during the school year. “
Asked if she thinks the leave policy enforcement is going to have any effect on staff retention, Neyman responded:
“I think that we’re going to have staff that are all in and we’re going to have staff who having engaged in chronic absenteeism over the years that this will bother them. And I think that’s not a bad thing.”
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
