Independence teachers concerned about makeup days

Yahoo

08-03-2025

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — An unprecedented number of bad weather days this winter led Kansas City area schools to cancel classes in numbers not seen in years.
One metro school district said teachers will need to makeup several days without students in class to fulfill their contracts.
The superintendent said they're not asking teachers work any more days than what's in their contract.
The Independence School District sent an email to staff this week. It details the 'inclement weather makeup day requirements' for different employee groups, including teachers.
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Jorjana Pohlman said teachers are looking at having to work an extra four days. She's a teacher in Independence and is president of the Independence National Education Association.
'Teachers are disappointed and frustrated,' she said.
The district says teachers are contractually obligated to work 171 days in a school year.
Independence Superintendent Dr. Dale Herl said they'll use five built in snow days, then students will need to makeup two additional days.
'We are not asking anyone to do anything more than what their contract states and we have given many, many options to make up that time if they so wish, but no one is required to come in on a weekend,' Herl said.
Beyond that, he said teachers are required to makeup 4 to 5 days depending on the teacher's situation.
'There are 33 options for teachers to makeup the days in which they missed and need to make up,' Herl said. 'Additionally they don't have what a normal school day would be.'
He also said teachers are able to use personal, vacation or sick time to get paid for those makeup days.
Pohlman said the problem is teachers have second jobs and already have vacations scheduled and family obligations.
'Many of our teacher have young children and they have weekend commitments, family commitments, sports practice, worship service on Sundays,' she added. 'So it's making it very challenging to meet those extra teacher days.'
With weekends being an option, she also said childcare is a big concern among teachers.
'The teacher concerns are childcare for these makeup days,' Pohlman said. 'Some of these options are Saturdays and Sundays.'
'Really, we're treating this no different than we would any other weekend, in which a staff member goes up to work in their classroom,' Herl said, 'and they can take their children up to work if they want.'
Independence uses a four-day school week through the year. They also choose not to do remote learning days.
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'You can't simply pay people without asking them to complete their contractual obligations,' Herl said. 'We offered many, many options some of those days have already occurred. So when we had some of the inclement weather we did allow staff to come in and work, but no one is required to come in on weekends. Again we gave a wide range of choices including to take vacation or personal leave.'
Pohlman said teachers would like to give input on a solution. She said many community members plan to speak at the board meeting next week.
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