Question for education professionals re: time off***UPDATE**

[Cindy B]

This question is open to anyone who works in a school system, pararprofessional, teacher, anyone in this capacity.


Last night, I got some wonderful news. My DH, as loving and sweet as he is, organized a Disney/Universal trip without me knowing for NEXT MONTH!

The problem is I will have to miss a few days. Actually it would be Mon-Wedneday. Thursday-Friday is half days, so I would be only working half days anyway.

I will be gone the whole week, and am looking for suggestions on how to "break it to administration".

I am a special education aide. I am not assigned a team. I do not have assigned lunch duties or special projects. Some days (usually 3 out of 5) I only have classroom duties from 1-3 pm, and the ohter time is doing dumb stuff.


********** UPDATE*************


I wound up first talking to my union rep today regarding this. She said this wasn't the first or last time this has happened.

She suggested I talk to my boss's secretary, and be straight with her. We talked, and it was decided that I will take the two 1/2 days as one personal and three unpaid. There will also be a provision for no disparaging remarks about it come review time.


*********************************************


I do have some personal /sick days left out there. I have a feeling that this will be unpaid leave, and thats ok with me.


How do I tell them? This principal is very busy, and really not very accommodating to the aides.

I have never in three years gone over my allowed days, and had excellent evaluations the entire time I have been there.

 

[nativetxn]

I can't offer advice but I'm going to bump this back to page one for you. Hopefully some of your fellow educators can offer advice.

Katholyn

 

[Simba's Mom]

Unfortunately, I don't have any great ideas for you, but I'm in a similar position (also a teacher) who occassionally wrestles with this too. I've got to admit that so far I haven't told them the truth when I'm going to be gone for a few days about where I'm really going. I figure that since I'm not using sick days, and not getting paid when I'm gone, it doesn't matter. Last time, I just said I was leaving town for a few days to check on relatives who live in another state. But I'm hoping someone can come up with suggestions.

 

[Chipmunk]

Believe me you deserve a vacation. Everybody in the school should get two extra weeks of personal leave.

What is the worst thing the principal can say? If he says you can't go, find another job. GO TELL HIM or HER TOMORROW that you need to take personal leave. A Disney vacation is worth it!

 

[Karel]

Well, that's a very nice thought, Chipmunk, but not very realistic. Can you imagine what chaos would occur if everyone in the school got a two week vacation every year?


Will they get a sub for you? I would just ask for an unpaid leave for the week. I would try to save your personal days.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by Karel
Well, that's a very nice thought, Chipmunk, but not very realistic. Can you imagine what chaos would occur if everyone in the school got a two week vacation every year?


Will they get a sub for you? I would just ask for an unpaid leave for the week. I would try to save your personal days.

No. They don't usually get subs for aides, since there are a plethera of them in the building. I usually do the sub jobs for other aides, if that helps. I'm only assigned two inclusion classes throughout the day, so the rest of the day I copy, file, and do other stuff.
I have never been assigned a daily task like doing the mail, or lunch duty, since my core schedule is flex schedule, and changes DAILY!

I'm worried what effect this will be on my evaluation. I never ask for an excessive amount of time off. I don't want to look unprofessional.

Is it better to say to the administration "Hey this is a non refundable trip that I had no idea about until this week. " (total truth)

or sort of "fudge" like the other poster telling I have family obligations the week after Thanksgiving (I do have family in Orlando, and we were planning to see them), and not mention Disney or Universal.

Either way, I know that they won't be thrilled. I am asking for unpaid time, so thats not an issue. I can use the personal days because they are available., but I'm not sure how I want to do it.

 

[SandiH]

We had an aide who wanted to take a vacation with her mom (her mom had cancer). She ended up losing her job because in our system, you can not take vacation time during school days. You are contracted for, in our case, a 180 days - which happen to be how many days there are in school. Vacation time is for time school is not in session. Just as it is for teachers. You also can't take leave without pay for a vacation. Again - this is our systems bargining agreement - you should check yours out before "breaking it to administration". Every bargining group can be slightly different so do your research first.

As far as our aide goes - she booked the vacation without realizing the policy - tried to work with admin (in this case the classified manager at the district level) to no avail. She decided to roll the dice, take her vacation and deal with the situation when she got back. Needless to say, she's not working with the district anymore and after it all happened, decided in hindsight it would have been better to switch her dates.

I'm not saying don't go or you don't deserve to go - just check out the personnel policy to gather all the information you need to decide if it will even be approved with administration. If you decide it will work - just tell them you will need to be out of town for a week.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by SandiH

.

I'm not saying don't go or you don't deserve to go - just check out the personnel policy to gather all the information you need to decide if it will even be approved with administration. If you decide it will work - just tell them you will need to be out of town for a week.

I'm thinking of telling it to them like that. I will be out of town, and have to take the time unpaid. I really don't want to mention trip or Disney or Universal.

As far as the bargaining agreement, I'm not certain about this. I have seen others take time off, (for instance one aide who has been in the district for 30 years has been out for going on two years!).

Personally, I am going to leave the district soon. I will have my sustitute certificate soon, and am gong to leave either by December or June anyway. I am going to sub for a year, and go back to school.

 

[LindaG4458]

I second SandiH. In many school systems it is considered a termination offense to take a vacation when school is in session, especially if the person is caught having lied about the reason for the absence. How much do you like your job?

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Are you on a contract like the teachers, or considered more like a sub? We don't have aids in our building, we have permanent subs that help out like you do with covering classes, etc. They get a daily rate and if they miss, they don't get it.
We get 3 personal days a year plus sick time. You can also get unpaid days if approved. The number depends on the # of years taught. I could take 5 if I wanted to, but only one can be the day before or after a vacation period. If you are going the week after Thanksgiving, that would affect you.
Doesn't your husband know your schedule? God love him it's a sweet gesture, but teachers can't just up and leave. Plus you say it's only 3 days because Thurs-Fri are 1/2 days--are you off on half days normally? Because if you aren't, it's a whole week you'll miss.
Robin M.

 

[bobcat]

In our district our personal days are just that personal. We don't have to tell them what we are doing with those days. In the district I used to work in we had i believe two unrestricted and one restricted personal day. I would check with your policy. Since they don't have to pay for a sub then you might have a better chance taking that time off. Can you use your personal days for the beginning of the week and then just request and unpaid leave for your half days? Taking time off during the school year can be a hassle, which is why I usually don't do it. I did however need to take 4 days off to go on my daughters DC trip last year and had to take one of those as a pay deduct day since we only get three personal days. That was a pinch in my paycheck!

 

[Megan's Mom]

Man this is all foreign to me. We get 2 personal days paid by the system then 3 days that we can"buy" we really just pay for the sub. We can do whatever we want to with those days because they are personal days. Now where they get picky is when you use sick days for something other than sick. we had one P.E. teacher that would try and take sick days for bailing hay. It caught up with him but they didn't fire him. I don't understand how they can tell you you can't take a vaction during school. I bet they let kids go on family vacationsduring the school year. I am taking off for 3 days the first week in December. I think I will just fill out the form Thanksgiving week. As far as I know no teacher/aide in my system has been told they could not take a day.

 

[Kallison]

Cindy we get two personal days a year and taking time off without pay is never a problem. I don't see why it should be a problem for you. We have to submit a form through the secretary. Have fun, don't worry about the principal. I"m sure he has bigger fish to fry .

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by Rock'n Robin
Are you on a contract like the teachers, or considered more like a sub?

Doesn't your husband know your schedule? God love him it's a sweet gesture, but teachers can't just up and leave. Plus you say it's only 3 days because Thurs-Fri are 1/2 days--are you off on half days normally? Because if you aren't, it's a whole week you'll miss.
Robin M.

We, the aides, are on a contract (union) but with different provisions than the certified teachers. For example, I am a classroom aide assigned to inclusion students. I don't have to do in services, or do professional hours (continuing ed). When the kids leave, I leave! (sort of like a sub, but getting paid less than a sub if you can fathom that!)

This schedule, with the Thursday/Friday, the aides would be off anyway, since when the kids are gone, we are gone. I could take two 1/2 personals, and those would be covered. I am off on any time the kids aren't there. Our principal tries to jerk us around to stay and do "free office help", but I have smaller kids to get -- elementary schedule is different, so I can't help.

Yes, he does know my schedule. It drive me nuts sometimes, but I have a feeling he's a "well, its only part time" thought process. It may be part time in his mind, and he may think in a corporate way, you could just stay late, not take lunch etc.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by Kallison
Cindy we get two personal days a year and taking time off without pay is never a problem. I don't see why it should be a problem for you. We have to submit a form through the secretary. Have fun, don't worry about the principal. I"m sure he has bigger fish to fry .

You are probably right. I am a lowly aide compared to the teachers. If I was a teacher, that would be a mess. I have a teacher that had to get special permission for her honeymoon,since the spring recess break date changed.

 

[paigevz]

Hi, new but maybe I can help. Just remembering that saying: It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission! I'm not saying just run out or anything, but a general....."I have to go out of town, and I hope it won't be too hard on everyone while I'm gone, but this is really something I must do for my family's sake" should do fine. If you do have something you do that will go undone, I've found it helps to find someone to take it on as a favor to you, and let them know "cindy will be sorting the mail while I'm gone" type thing. I'm a 2nd grade teacher, and haven't had to try to get days off, but do have to try to leave early/come late sometimes, and it always helps if I have someone covering my duty or if my class is combining with another for a project. hope that helps!

 

[soccerchick]

As another poster said, don't lie. I like the response paigevz gave -- perfect. If you plan to leave soon anyway, why not take the personal leave? As for the evaluation, if your work is exemplary, why would one trip sabotage that? if your evaluation mentions it, don't you have the right to respond to what's in your eval. in a letter to be placed in your file with it?

As a teacher, I RARELY take time off unless I REALLY have to. my job is to teach and I can't do that effectively if I'm not there. It's usually not worth it to me to spend extra hours on sub plans and then still get a sub who decides to do their own thing and ignore my plans. It would be nice if teachers and others in educ. could take time off without all this hassle.
Unfortunately, the world thinks teachers' lives should be lived for six weeks in the summer, but life doesn't always cooperate and "happen" in the convenient summer break.

have a fun trip OP!

 

[LindaG4458]

This was in today's paper regarding makeup days due to the two hurricanes:

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,1651,TCP_1121_3232683,00.html

Maher said he understands some prior travel arrangements may already have been made for what previously were vacation days, but he expects employees to be at their jobs on the makeup days.

"That is a workday and people are expected to be on the clock," he said.

Linda Robertson, assistant superintendent of operations for the district, said since teachers were paid for the hurricane days, they were paid in advance for their work.

 

[CheshireVal]

I'm a teacher, and I've just sort of gotten used to the fact that the only time I can really vacation is when all the tourist-y places are most crowded (ie, school holidays.)

I work at a private school and we don't get ANY personal days at all. Wish I had some advice for you, but it's a tough situation!

 

[chrissyk]

My mom has been a teacher for 20 years or so. She was SO mad the other day when she told me that she has like 110 sick days (and "family" sick days) that she is going to lose. She can't even donate them to a pool for people who need them (like teachers with cancer) The union doesn't allow that! Her view is use-it-or-lose-it now. If I were you, I'd use the family-sick/personal days for this trip. Maybe I am biased after hearing my mom talk about this, though.