Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.
The Chicago Board of Education is considering tightening up paid time off policies for CPS employees, including requiring more notice for taking off for religious holidays and adding explicit language that says CPS can fire employees who misuse sick days.
The district also proposed changes to bring its sick leave policies for non-union employees into alignment with new City of Chicago policies.
CPS is proposing the changes for approval at its board meeting on Sept. 25.
Under the proposed changes, employees would have to provide 14 days notice — a week more than currently required — before taking one of their three allotted religious days off. The proposal also includes additional language on what does not count as religious beliefs, including “social, political, or economic philosophies, or personal ideological preferences.”
The proposed policy changes for religious holidays come two years after the district stopped docking pay for teachers who took off on religious holidays. The old policy cut pay for teachers because, they argued, the school needed to be able to pay for a substitute. At the time, union leaders who had pushed for the tweaks applauded that policy change, saying it penalized teachers who observe religious holidays that aren’t accounted for in the school calendar, such as Yom Kippur.
Administrators can deny religious holiday time off for employees if there is an “operational need” for that person to stay at work. Those supervisors would have to provide their denial in writing at least seven days before the requested holiday off, the proposed changes said.
These changes would give “managers, mostly principals, more time for planning and coverage when an employee is out,” Ben Felton, the district’s chief talent officer, told the board during a meeting Wednesday to review the board’s agenda for the Sept. 25 meeting. Felton said clarifying definitions for religious beliefs and denial procedures “are in case religious holidays are not being used properly.”
The district is proposing that employees who abuse paid sick leave “may be subject to discipline up to and including termination,” which Felton said is possible under current board policy but isn’t explicit.
According to current board policy, unionized employees not represented by CTU who are found to be using sick leave “in an unauthorized manner” can be suspended from work without pay for up to 15 days. The current policy also says that employees who fraudulently use leaves of absence or have “excessively poor attendance” can be fired.
“It is not our intent to create more severe discipline for these infractions,” Felton said in a brief interview with Chalkbeat. “It’s just to align our policies and make sure that it’s clear that in some instances, using sick days in this way could result in termination.”
Employees who are out on sick leave for more than three days must present documentation that they were treated by a doctor or another practitioner for their illness.
CPS got little feedback on the proposed changes when it opened the policies up for public comment last month, Felton told the board. He did not specify the nature of that feedback. Neither the Chicago Teachers Union nor SEIU Local 73 responded to a request for comment.
Separately, CPS is proposing that hourly and part-time employees would begin accruing sick leave immediately upon being hired and can begin using that time 30 days after they’re hired. The district has already started implementing those changes but is updating its policies to come into compliance with a new city ordinance, Felton told board members.
Full-time, non-union employees would also be able to carry over some unused sick days into the new fiscal year; previously, these employees had to use their sick days or forfeit them by June 30, or the end of the fiscal year.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
