On 2nd day, even more teachers are truant

Even more teachers didn't show up for the second day of school than the first, and district officials yesterday began tracking how many of them had sought approval for their absence.

The district's human-resources chief, Estelle Matthews, said that 201 teachers didn't go to work yesterday, up from 171 absences the day before.

There is a two-step process for teachers to be excused for the day. The first step is to declare the absence on an online database that helps the district determine how many substitute teachers to call. The second is to speak with someone in the human-resources office to get approval for the absence, whether for illness, death in the family or otherwise.

But a number of the teachers who didn't show up yesterday did not follow protocol, Matthews said. Of yesterday's absences, Matthews said that 145 teachers indicated online that they were out because of illness, and 15 were out on personal leave. The remaining teachers were out due to family deaths, jury duty or other reasons, a district spokesman said.

Not included in that number are 14 teachers who resigned or retired unexpectedly, Matthews said. The district employs about 11,000 instructors.

School is out today and tomorrow because of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, leaving only two days of instruction in the first week of school. Matthews said that because of the absentee teachers, more than 4,000 district students did not have their regular teachers in a classroom for the first week.

Matthews said that she is tracking which teachers were approved to be absent. Teachers, as stipulated in their union contract, must get approval from human resources, not just school administrators.

Matthews said that she didn't know what consequences teachers would face if they did not get approval by her office to be absent.

"I can't put a judgment on [who's ill]," Matthews said. "People say they're ill, who am I to say they're not?

"But when I see 171 teachers absent, I see the students who don't have a teacher in their classroom."