PEPPERELL, Mass. – In May of 2013, the Boston CBS television affiliate did an investigative report on teacher absences in area school districts.

The reporters shared their findings with Dr. Stephen Russell, superintendent of the Salem school district.

Russell was disturbed by the findings, and ordered a review of teacher attendance in all district schools.

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He attributed the problem to employee union contracts, which guaranteed union members in his district 15 paid sick days per academic year.

“I am sure if we were going to negotiate those contracts fresh today … the benefits package would not be as generous.”

Russell was definitely on to something.

EAGnews recently obtained teacher absentee statistics from four Massachusetts school districts. All four have teacher union contracts with very liberal sick day policies, and all four had a lot of employees, including teachers, taking a lot of sick and personal days off.

Other employee union contracts also affect attendance rates, but teacher union contracts usually cover the majority of employees in average school districts. They also influence officials from other unions, who want the same type of perks for their members.

The more generous the sick leave policies, the higher the absentee rate, as we illustrate below. And too many teacher absences rob students of quality learning time and cost schools a great deal of money.

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The most generous paid leave policy we came across was in the North Middlesex school district. Teachers in their first three years of experience are given 10 days of paid time off, while those with four or more years get a whopping 18 days.

That’s 10 percent of a typical 180-day school year.

In 2013-14, 265 North Middlesex teachers took a combined 3,170 sick and personal days, for an average of 11.9 days per teacher. They were collectively paid more than $1 million for those days they didn’t work, and the district spent $157,688 on substitute teachers.

The Woburn school district teachers union contract gives covered employees 13 paid sick days off per year.

In 2013-14, 596 employees (over half of whom were teachers) took a combined 5,782 sick and personal days, for an average of 9.7 days per employee.

They were collectively paid more than $1.6 million for their time off, and the district forked over $734,100 for substitute teachers. The district also paid $154,795 in compensation for unused sick leave.

The Marlborough district teachers union contract gives covered employees 15 paid sick days off.

In 2013-14, 740 employees (about half of them teachers) took a combined 10,615 sick and personal days, for an average of 14.3 days per teacher. That’s a lot of absences.

The district did not reveal how much the absent teachers were paid, but reported spending $518,677 on substitute teachers.

The Hudson district’s teacher union contract provides members with 12 paid sick days through their first three years and 13 days from their fourth year and beyond.

In 2013-14, 238 teachers, took a total of 2,673 sick and personal days, for an average of 11.2 per employee. The district spent $411,946 on substitute teachers.