LOS ANGELES: Parents at an elementary school in have expressed outrage after learning that a teacher suffering from cancer and on sick leave is having to pay the school district for her substitute.
The second-grade teacher at Glen Park Elementary is off sick with for the rest of the year and has been paying nearly $200 a day for her replacement, in accordance with state law, local news reports said. “Parents were outraged and incredulous — like, this can’t be,” Amanda Fried, who has a daughter in kindergarten and another in third grade, told the . “There must be some mistake.”
A school district spokeswoman, however, said that the payment was not unusual and was in line with state law. “This is not unique to San Francisco,” Laura Dudnick said in a statement. “This is not a district-only rule.”
Dudnick explained that teachers in the district get 10 days of sick leave a year and can carry over those sick days year after year if they don’t use them. Once those sick days are exhausted, teachers are then eligible for 100 days of extended sick leave, during which they are entitled to their full pay, minus the cost of a substitute.
On learning about the little-known provision in the state’s education code, horrified parents last month began raising money for the popular teacher, who has asked that her name not be disclosed. A Go-FundMe campaign has raised nearly $14,000 and some of the children are planning bake sales to raise more funds.
The page says that parents are supporting the 17-year veteran teacher as “she has nurtured our children and now it is time for us to take of her”.
“Just a few days after her surgery, she took the time to write out 22 completely personalised notes to the students in the class thanking them for their support, telling them she missed them dearly and encouraging them to continue working hard,” the campaign said.
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