This is a tough one.

If someone is unable to work, due to no fault of their own, they should be given care and compensation should be available. But I believe that's what short and long term disability are for.
Banking sick days is ripe for abuse.
A sick day shouldn't be looked at as a 'use it or loose it' thing - t isn't just another day off. My company (Fortune 100) hasn't given 'sick days' for the last 20 years. We get a certain number of Paid Time Off days, and how we use them is our choice. If you get sick, you use them. If not, they're yours to use how you'd like. You cannot transfer, sell, etc them to other employees. If you get sick after you've used all of your PTOs, you either go out without pay (onesy, twosey sick day), or receive disability for longer term issues.

I think the option of giving Moor the sick days minus the cost of the substitute is a good idea. The cost to taxpayers when an employee is out of work and a substitute must be paid can get out of control.

It's a shame that we have come to the point when dollars and cents out weigh human compassion. I'm sure that if someone needs to use the "banked" sick time it is not something they want to do---and it certainly would be abled to be monitored.
There are enough other areas in a school budget that can be evaluated for money being well spent. Caring for a colleague shouldn't be one of them

Well said, Ruth. I agree!

i find it appalling that coworkers cannot donate their unused sick days...don't we the tax payers have any say in this...of course not. Can she not file for disability?

School employees are not eligible for disability. This should be taken up with the DOE and governor about changing this, for Susan and many others it affects. Unless she took out a supplemental disability plan, AFLAC, or other co.(which many can't afford)
it's truely unfortunate for many.

This person is suffering more then should be allowed. Cancer a death of a child ,WOW! SIck days would be nice but beside that is there any fund raisers that have been done or are there any planed. We need to come together and raise money for this lady. Let me know if I can help and where I can make a donation.

Rich Dacey

@Domino - here we go with the personal attacks...

There is nothing stopping these teachers from taking up a collection and donating themselves to this woman or anyone else in a similar situation. It seems to me that people are more than happy to give to worth causes as evidenced by the many thousands collected through fundraisers reported right here over the past few months. There's no need to play games with taxpayer's money.

Sick days are the property of the TEACHER who has accumulated them. They should be free to do with them as they wish. Why should sub costs be deducted? If the teacher who OWNS the sick days uses 1, there is no deduction for sub costs. This school board and central administration has proven time and time again that they do not care about school-level employees, it is an administrative-centered district. New super = 7 new administrative positions - 1 administrative position (suspiciously personal, IMHO). Soon the district will not be able to get teachers given the reputation for being anti-teacher that continues to grow.

Sick day and vacation banking is a scam that cost taxpayers WAAAY too much money. Look how many $100,000 payouts have to be funded for retiring cops recently. Some towns didn't even have the money in the budget! In my town my taxes have gone up 2k in the past 5 years. over 60% of that goes to education. I get nauseous thinking that MY taxes eventually may go to a teacher who 'deserves' to be paid for not being sick. How does the town handle sick pay? Is it an insurance claim? If thats the case....insurance fraud.

I think that anyone posting to this who is a teacher in the district should have the courtesy to identify themselves as such. That way the opinions would be recognizable as having a special interest in the outcome.

so maybe teachers should pay into Disability, and be eligible to receive benefits if qualified? What's the issue with that?
I also like the idea of fundraisers.

Being on disability is different that being employed. Ms Moore needs health insurance. To have health insurance, she needs a salary. The Governor mandated public employees contribute to their health plan.

Go on unpaid leave, you have to COBRA your healthcare. With what?

Public employers have rules and no heart.

As I see this, she has no sick time left because her daughter died, and she's looking at the prospect of having breast cancer with no health insurance (Death sentence).

Once upon a time this was a place where you wouldn't back the bus over a person when they were down.

While I feel terribly about Susan's situation, there are mechanisms in place that should compensate her such as LTD or STD insurance.

My company offers NO sick days but rather has an honesty policy. If you're sick you take the day off, if not, well you're not sick now are you and you go to work.
It is an incredibly effective way of keeping everyone honest vs. a use it or lose it system or the unsustainable and ridiculous "bank" system.
Regardless of your position, I don't think anyone should be able to "bank" sick days and use that as part your long term compensation package like you often see when those in public service retire.

Very simple solution here! The teachers who want to donate their sick days should instead just give the cash equivalent to the teacher in need. They can easily convert their own days into cash, and Susan's days off are costing her in cash as well. Cash is the appropriate equalizer in this situation. It completely eliminates the problem of needing to convert dissimilarly valued time-off days. By giving their days, the teachers were already giving something worth cash anyway, so may as well just do the conversion themselves to simplify things.

The issue of whether or not sick days should be able to be banked is completely separate policy issue. My vote on that is that each year, you start with 3 sick days, and it's "use them or lose them" each year. No banking them. Yes, this basically amounts to three extra vacation days per year for most people. But it's tough to find another arrangement that everybody would be happy with. Again, though - this is a separate conversation from what to do about Susan's situation.

The teachers' union has historically refused their teachers to do any additional thing for the district or its students that falls outside the scope of the teachers' contract unless the teachers are paid (well) for it. The union has had ample opportunities over the years to negotiate a sick day bank into its contract and the fact that it hasn't speaks loudly to the union's own priorities. Don't blame the BOE for this predicament; blame the union. If access to a sick day bank is so important to union members, the union should make a meaningful effort during the next round of upcoming negotiations to place it in the contract. As for doing the "humane" thing, it is certainly no secret that the union leaders were threatening to forbid teachers to not write letters of recommendation for graduating seniors applying to colleges during the last round of contentious negotiations. Ms. Moor is an unfortunate victim of her union's own greed and short sightedness. In order to secure a sick day bank, union leadership would need to offer a concession to the BOE to offset the costs incurred, and it's pretty clear the union has historically refused to do just that.

But can teachers "cash out" their sick days prior to retirement? If so, then yes, I think that solution is feasible. If not, they'd have to advance money that wouldn't be compensated for some time. While some may be able to do that, I'm sure many others would not.

I am generally opposed to banking sick days, and favor PTOs as well. I know the teachers union would never go for it. But as posted before, most of corporate America uses the PTO system - it's simple, if you're out, use a PTO. At my company, you can only carry over 10 days per year. That way, upon retirement, there is no huge cash payout for days accumulated over decades.

On disability - do the teachers not pay into disability? Or in this case, has the disability simply run out?

The sad thing is that the board should be able to make a decision to help this woman out under her extraordinary circumstances, as any decent private employer would do. I hope there are fundraisers for her regardless.

I think something should be done for this woman, for sure. What exactly did the BOE propose and the union reject? All behind closed doors....the side that was unreasonable is not clear to me. An NJEA negotiator versus a board attorney is not exactly the way to a compassionate settlement. The NJEA probably sees some sort of advantageous precedent here. The board attorney is charged with upholding the taxpayer's end of a contract that took....how long to hammer out? Years?

Jason, get on your horse. This idea certainly wasn't invented at West Morris. Some other school district must have lessons learned.

Where does it say she lost her healthcare benefits? It just sounds to me that she is looking for a full day's pay via "sick day bank" vs. nothing or STD or LTD insurance.

If she has no healthcare benefits that is truly tragic. But if she does, she is confronted with the same issues anyone in the private sector would have have to contend with. No full pay, lost time at work etc.

No easy answer here but I wish her well.

From the Observer-Tribune, May 18th, 2012 : "The sticking point in the job description for the four content supervisors revolved around the current policy to allow retiring employees over 50 with 10 years of district service to cash in unused sick days for $100 up to $15,000." I believe teacher's unused sick pay caps out per the terms above. Can anyone confirm this? If so, it does change the dynamics of the sick pay bank conversation.

I too think that sick days are a scam and that we have a totally unsustainable system as it relates to compensation of public union employees in this state. However, this woman has really gotten the short end of the stick in life and the use of other teachers sick days, which are in fact theirs, should be allowed.

Hello folks, thanks for commenting. We are continuing to follow this story and there are some more details about fundraising efforts found here: http://patch.com/A-1ybh

There is more to come and we expect further updates to be available soon. Thanks again for reading and commenting.

We are hosting a fundraising event to benefit Mrs. Moor and her family at Bob's Long Valley Pizza, Deli & Bagels. Please come in for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner (Dine-In or Take-Out) on Monday, February 11th. 20% of our sales for the entire day will be donated to Mrs. Moor.

https://www.facebook.com/LongValleyPizza