What is the sick bank?

What if an illness or reason to leave school lasts longer than the amount of sick days a teacher has? This is where the “sick bank” comes into play. At the beginning of every school year each teacher is required to donate a minimum of two of their own sick days into the sick bank. If the sick bank is not at the required minimum of 90 days, each teacher would have to donate additional sick days until the bank reaches 90 days. If a teacher is sick, they can use their own sick days which can accumulate up to 120 days maximum (15 to start each year), to be excused before they apply for the sick bank.

The process for a teacher to use the sick bank is pretty simple. The teacher must first, have no sick days left and second, have a serious illness or disability. The teacher then has to apply with a written application as to why they feel they need to use the sick bank and how many days they need. From there it’s in the hands of the sick bank committee to decide whether or not to grant the request.

Some newer teachers aren't 100% sure what the sick bank is but they have a general understanding. “I know that there is a sick bank and the basics like every teacher donates two sick days every year… I totally support it and I think it’s designed to protect teachers” said Mr. Pilcher. “I’ve always been a proponent to it(the sick bank), it just seems to make sense. If people are willing to donate and other people need it, it just makes sense” Ms. Bottom added in.

Longstanding teacher Mr. Reichert gave us this view on the sick bank, “As a faculty we’ve been fighting for a sick bank for a long time. If you get a really heavy illness that takes you out, newer teaches or teachers with a prolonged illness might not have enough sick days so income would stop coming in at a critical time, so I’ve always been a proponent of it. The problem or inherent weakness with it is after a certain amount of days a teacher will go on disability. So that's a federal statute, and, when you go on disability, you only get approximately a little over half your salary. So there's still some weaknesses in the sick bank but the sick bank basically benefits people who don't have sick days anymore”