CHITTENDEN, Vt. – It’s one thing to offer school employees a fair number of paid sick days per year.

But some schools – including several in Vermont – have policies that practically invite runaway absenteeism.

EAGnews discovered three neighboring districts – the Chittenden Central Supervisory Union, the Chittenden South Supervisory Union, and the Colchester district – that offer employees a whopping 20 paid sick days, as well as three paid personal days, per year.

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That’s far more than the 10-15 combined sick and personal days that most schools around the nation typically offer.

The wisdom of such policies is questionable from several points of view.

Academic studies have proven that students learn very little when their regular teachers are absent. And schools end up wasting a lot of scarce tax dollars when employees are paid to stay home and substitute teachers are needed quite frequently.

In the Chittenden South Supervisory Union employees took a combined 15,168 paid sick and personal days in 2013-14. With 926 employees, that averages out to 16.3 per employee. That’s a lot.

Chittenden South officials did not disclose how much they paid in salary for sick and personal days, but the supervisory union spent $604,719 on substitute teachers in 2013-14.

In the Chittenden Central Supervisory Union, employees took 4,502 paid sick days and 1,542 paid personal days in the 2013-14 school year. With 548 employees, that averages out to 11 days per employee.

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District officials did not reveal the amount of salary paid to absent teachers and other employees, but they did acknowledge paying $592,123 in wages for substitute teachers over the course of the school year.

Hourly employees in the Colchester school district took approximately 1,418 sick days and 348 personal days in 2013-14 (based on a presumed 7.5 hour work day). With 203 hourly employees, that equates to 8.6 days per employee.

Hourly employees were paid $214,202 for sick and personal days they took.

“Exempt” employees in the Colchester district – described as “teachers, administrators and other professional staff” – took 1,803 sick days and 493 personal days. With approximately 177 teachers and 14 administrators, that comes out to 12 days per employee.

Colchester officials did not divulge how much was spent on salary for “exempt” employees, but did report spending $270,982 on substitute teachers.

The tiny Winooski school district only has 74 teachers, but they took a combined 1,102 sick and personal days in 2012-13. That averages out to 14.8 paid days off per teacher.

The district paid those teachers $316,499 for the days they were gone and spent $132,900 on substitutes.