Should evaluations take into account teacher absences?

counted against them in their evaluations? that’s the debate that has las cruces public schools and the public education department split. ABC-7’s josie ortegon is live from our new mexico mobile newsroom. josie? estela… lcps and the ped don’t agree with how many times a teacher can be absent before it’s counted against them. lcps says 13, the ped says 1. and this discussion is far from over: sot- Mary Sanchez”fthe extr hours of planning lessons, extra hours of grading, coaching, band instruction, they’re given no credit for that and yet, the minute they use one of their fringe benefits, they’re docked in their evaluations.” mary sanchez, vice president of the n- e-a and histroy instructor, says las cruces teachers are afraid using their personal or sick time—because it’ll be counted against them. “nats they’re allowed 10 sick days and 2 personal days–an amount agreed to under an agreement with the nea. but the public education department factors in those absences at evaluation time. 0-2 absences are considered “highly exemplary” –this year, lcps an the school board wants to change that, based on their existing collective bargaining agreement. –they want the ped to count absences after the 12 alloted days but the public education department says it was lcps’s choice last year to include teacher attendance as a component in their evaluations. in a statement to abc-7, spokeswoman ellen hur says: statement: It is unfathomable that a school board would insist that the attendance records of a teacher who comes to work every single day and a teacher who misses nearly a month of work should both be considered “exemplary.” stand-up “Sanc and the District say they agree with the ped, teachers belong in the classroom. They say in this case, they’re not encouraging teachers to be absent.” sot- SANCHEZ”Everybod agrees that indsturciton happens best when a teacher is in the classroom. THere are just certian events that happend in people’s lives…we’re mothers, husbands and wives, sisters and daughters and we have parents to take care of and children to take care of.. the ped tells me they hope lcps will honor the original agreement they made. school board president maria flores says she will be in contact with the ped. live in lc, jo, abc7. ok josie, thank you for that report. to stormtrack weather now, our abc-seven first alert is no longer in