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Many Teachers, Drivers Plan To Skip Work Good Friday

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By MARILYN BROWN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 18, 2008

Updated: 03/17/2008 11:25 pm

TAMPA - Requests for personal days on Good Friday are piling up for Hillsborough teachers and bus drivers, making more late buses and combined classes likely.

The school district has traditionally taken Good Friday off, but scheduled classes this year as part of a secular calendar excluding all religious holidays except Christmas.

How many of the district's 191,000 students plan to skip school this Friday is tough to predict, but teachers and bus drivers may take personal days.

"I think an awful lot of people plan to have a personal day on Friday," said Yvonne Lyons, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association executive director. "Anybody who has a personal day left can use it Friday."

Teachers earn 10 sick days a year and may take six as personal days, she said.

Hillsborough principals are supposed to ask teachers today how many plan to take off Friday, said Ken Otero, the district chief of staff. Wednesday, a plan will be in place, he said, to deal with the absences. It is likely to include combining classes and moving substitutes from one school to another, he said.

Otero said he didn't know how many teachers had requested substitutes.

"On any given Friday, we're running out of substitutes," he said. "On Fridays and Mondays we run out." Then teachers take on extra classes during planning periods and administrators also take over classes.

"I'm more concerned with transportation than I am in the classroom," Otero said.

As of Monday afternoon, 204 bus drivers had given notice that they will take personal or sick time Friday, said John Franklin, district transportation chief. Normally it's 90 to 100 absent each day out of about 1,000 drivers.

"It's still changing - it's a moving target," Franklin said. "It's going to be a pretty big challenge here."

Many drivers are already making two and three runs to pick up students at any given time, which will obviously increase, Franklin said.

"I'm putting together a plan to minimize disruption of kids," he said.

Drivers may also use up to six days of sick leave for personal days with no questions asked, said Luis Perez, president of the Hillsborough School Employees Federation. They earn sick days based on service time.

"I know a lot of drivers are taking it off," Perez said. "I know it is a concern.'

Observance of a religious holiday is an excused absence for any student.

Taking Good Friday off has nothing to do with religion, however, said School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Faliero.

"Parents have always taken off Good Friday - they always will," Faliero said. "This is an American tradition."

School board members voted to have school on Good Friday this year and see how many students and employees took the day off for future calendars. That tally will have no use for at least another two years, however: On the 2008-09 district calendar, Good Friday is part of Spring break.

Faliero said her two daughters are going to school Friday, but then, "Monday we're going out of town. We're taking Monday off."

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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