GLEN ROCK, N.J. – The Glen Rock school board has come up with a novel idea: Keeping school open for the two days each November when the New Jersey Education Association – the state’s largest teachers union – has its annual convention.

Currently most of the state’s public schools close for those days, meaning two days of learning are lost just because a labor union decides to schedule its convention on days when its members should be working.

This disturbing tradition also occurs in schools in several other union-friendly states across the nation.

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Glen Rock board members say there are several good reasons for keeping school open during the convention, according to the NorthJersey.com. They include the annual loss of instruction days to inclement weather, the impending need to close school more days to make time for more state-mandated teacher professional training, and Gov. Chris Christie’s push to extend the length of the school year.

But the school board apparently has no plan to force teachers to work on convention days. Board President Sheldon Hirschberg even told the news site he encourages teachers to attend the union convention, which he called “useful and productive.”

The news report does not say how the district would cover for what we assume would be a significant number of absent teachers during the convention. We assume the plan would be to hire a lot of subs, which could prove to be expensive for the district.

A far better approach would be for all schools in New Jersey to remain open on the convention days and require all teachers to report to work, unless they want to use paid vacation or personal days. If there is contract language guaranteeing teachers those days off, school boards should endeavor to strike it as soon as possible.

If the teachers union want its members to attend a convention, it should schedule it for a weekend or a few days in the summer, when teachers are not needed in the classroom to instruct students. Paying them to participate in union activities, while kids sit home learning nothing, is unacceptable and an insult to the state’s education system.