LEXINGTON, S.C. – The people of South Carolina are pretty conservative.

That means they like to see their tax dollars applied wisely, with minimal waste, whenever possible.

So how would they feel if they knew that at least some of their public school districts are paying six and seven figures every year to absent employees, substitutes who must be hired to cover for absent teachers, and as compensation for unused employee sick days?

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It’s happening, and it’s zapping a lot of money from public schools.

Three good examples are the Lexington County One, Two and Three school districts.

In the Lexington One district, employees earn 1 1/3 days of paid time off for every month on the job. That equals between 12 and 16 days, depending on how many days per year an employee works.

Obviously employees can use those paid days off for personal illness. They can also be used for a death in the family, which is not unusual, or an illness in the family.

The district’s employee handbook defines “family” as spouses, brothers or sisters, brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law, fathers-in-law or mothers-in-law, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, parents, aunts and uncles, nephews or nieces, stepbrothers or stepsisters, stepparents or stepchildren.

We presume that means taking a sick day is acceptable if your mother-in-law is not feeling well. Oddly, the biological children of employees are not mentioned on that lengthy list of eligible family members.

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Employees in Lexington One are allowed to use between five and eight of their accumulated leave days for personal business. They are also allowed to accumulate up to 135 unused leave days.

Those who have earned at least 90 unused days may cash out the number of days they have accumulated beyond 90 at the end of each school year, as the rate paid to substitute teachers.

Employees who have accumulated at least 135 days may cash in 90 of them at 66 2/3 percent of their value upon retirement or when they resign from the district.

The cost of all that adds up.

In 2013-14, the approximately 2,200 employees in the Lexington One district collectively used 29,173 paid leave days, which averages out to about 13 days per employee. They were collectively paid $6.4 million for days they did not work. That led to $3.5 million in substitute teacher costs for the district.

The district also paid out $209,413 in compensation for unused sick days.

In the Lexington 3 district, all eligible employees receive five paid personal days and between seven and 10 paid sick days, depending on how many days per year they work.

Like the Lexington 1 district, employees are allowed to use sick days for themselves, or to respond to illnesses of a lengthy list of relatives, which encourages the use of those days.

The approximately 300 employees in the Lexington 3 district took a combined 4,493 sick and personal days, which averages out to about 15 days per employee. They were paid a combined $861,378 for those days they did not work, and the district paid $152,136 in substitute teacher fees.

The Lexington 2 district did not offer detailed information about the number of sick and personal days taken by employees. But officials reported that the district paid out $281,945 to employees as compensation for unused sick days.