Lawrence district teachers are taking full advantage of sick and personal time – they collectively were absent from classrooms more than 10,000 days each of the past two years.

Teachers, who have 186-day work contracts, were absent an average of 11 days each academic year to deal with personal or family illness, business affairs, professional development, maternity leave and other issues.

Local education leaders were stunned by the statistics, which were drawn from district records.

“It raises all sorts of questions,” said Wayne Kruse, president of Lawrence Education Assn., the union representing teachers.

School board President Scott Morgan added: “These numbers make me pause. We want to focus on getting those numbers down.”

In 2001-2002, the district’s 934 certified teachers were absent 10,308 days. The previous year, 935 educators on staff were out of the classroom 10,305.5 days.

Such absences have academic and financial implications for the district, Morgan said. Because the teaching skills of a substitute typically can’t match that of a regular, full-time teacher, he said, teacher absences weaken the quality of education available to the district’s 10,000 students.

“That’s a huge drop, as any teacher will tell you,” Morgan said. “Our good teachers loathe subs. It’s a missed day in what they’re trying to get across to kids.”

A substitute must be called in to work each time a teacher is absent. And the district’s $400,000 annual budget for substitute wages hasn’t kept pace with demand for temporary replacements. The annual cost overrun for substitutes is typically more than $250,000 a year.

Austin Turney, the board’s vice president, said the budgetary implications of having teachers out of the classroom more than 10,000 days a year should be explored by the district’s budget committee.

However, he said, negotiating changes in teachers’ contracts to reduce absences would be difficult.

“I don’t know what we can do to restrain the use of time,” Turney said.

Mary Rodriguez, executive director of human resources, said the contract negotiated by teachers allowed each to take as many as 10 sick and personal business days annually, no questions asked.

About 65 percent of the 2001-2002 absences – 6,471 days – were tied to the contract provision.

Kruse, who combines work as LEA’s president with teaching at Quail Run School, said certified staff didn’t view the 10 days in their contract as “vacation” time they were expected to use.

“No,” he said. “I see people saying, âÂÂ’Even when I’m sick, I’m going to come to school.'”

Of the 10,300 days taken last year, 1,382 were for activities required by the district.

For example, elementary teachers were required to attend sessions on making the best use of new math textbooks. Also, all Lawrence junior high school teachers will meet in January to discuss time organization and practical teaching strategies.

That time is counted as professional development, and it’s an area Morgan would like to review.

“Not all of it by any stretch of the imagination is the teachers’ fault,” he said.

Getting a handle on absenteeism will be difficult, Morgan said.

“It’s one of those big things the board has been trying to get a grip on from an understanding standpoint. It’s a nebulous area. It’s hard to translate into real dollars,” he said.