GAINESVILLE – Gainesville City School Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Williams asked members of the Board of Education at their work session Monday evening to consider an increase in the number of days of personal leave teachers and paraprofessionals are allotted each year.
“You’re all very familiar with the work we’ve done around mental health and services for our students,” Williams said to board members.
“What are we doing for our staff members, in particularly our teachers and paraprofessionals that interact with students and family on a day-to-day basis,” he asked.
“What I’d like to do, if possible, is start to research that a little bit more (examining) other school systems, to look at maybe adding two more days of leave for our teachers and paraprofessional,” Williams said, answering his own question.
“As life happens, we’re also responding and understanding that life does happen.”
Williams continued, “The other side to that is also making sure that the preventative side is there as well as that reactive side.”
Williams explained that at present staff members have two days of personal leave each year.
“This would allow us to be able to look and see if it’s something worthwhile for some of our employees that we know need to be on their best in order to give our students their best.”
After the work session Williams was asked if the idea for supplementing personal leave days was generated locally or something he noticed other school districts were moving towards.
“We haven’t really held any focus groups or anything like that, but the things I continue to hear time and time again is: today when life hits, it’s just so much on families,” Williams answered.
Williams said teachers have lives and challenges just like anyone else. “If you’re a parent who has children, or you have siblings that you take care of, or parents that you assist with, sometimes the days we provide aren’t enough.”
“If they need a little mental health break and a time-out from a day because there’s some things going on in their life, then go ahead and do it.”
“I know corporately there are some businesses doing things; I haven’t seen a lot on the school system side, so I’m looking forward to just researching that.”
When asked about the cost of making the additional days off available, Williams responded, “We’re estimating that if we go down that route of two additional personal leave days…it’s going to be about $140,000. So, not a large item; it’s about $100 per day for a substitute (teacher).”
“The reward is going to be greater than the risk, I believe,” Williams added.
