GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids, Michigan school district has been a financial mess for years, and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving.

The district faced yet another budget deficit – an estimated $13.5 million – headed into the 2014-15 school year, according to media reports. District officials indicated that budget cuts would probably be necessary to address the financial shortfall.

They claim the state is to blame because it doesn’t send enough money.

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“This is not about mismanagement on the part of Grand Rapids Public Schools but deep structural issues that are not being addressed in Lansing,” Grand Rapids school board President Wendy Falb was quoted as saying.

By blaming the state, Falb and her colleagues blind themselves to one obvious truth – the district’s labor costs are out of control, and they have nobody to blame but themselves for that.

The biggest problem is that the school board continues to give in to the expensive demands of the Grand Rapids Education Association, the local teachers union.

Every few years the board agrees to a new collective bargaining agreement with the union that guarantees continually higher labor costs, in an era when the district clearly can’t afford them.

One good example is the district’s negotiated paid leave policies for teachers and other employees covered by the GREA contract. The policies encourage employee absenteeism, which costs the district a great deal of money, and students a great deal of learning time.

Full-time employees who belong to the union (mostly teachers, of course) start with a bank of five sick leave days when they are hired and earn one day for every month of work. Those employed year-round earn two sick leave days every October.

For most employees, that means 14 accumulated sick days in their first year, with nine or 10 added on each year.

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Employees are also given three personal days per year, which are not deducted from accumulated sick days. They are not required to offer a reason for taking those days off.

What’s the result of these self-defeating policies?

In 2013-14, the approximately 3,000 employees took roughly 19,268 sick days (based on a 7.5 hour work day) and approximately 4,655 personal days. That equates to an average of 6.4 sick days and 1.5 personal days per employee.

Of course averages can be deceiving. As in any workplace, some employees probably take close to the maximum number of days off while others take very few. The logical way to curtail the abusers is to minimize the number of days they can take.

Employees were compensated a combined total of $5.3 million for sick and personal days. Teacher absences forced the district to spend $688,370 on substitutes during the school year.

The contract also stipulates that the district pay extra money to employees with good attendance. In 2013-14 a total of $292,887 was paid as compensation for unused sick days.

Could a change in sick leave policy result in fewer absences and savings for the district?

One clue comes from Hamilton, Wisconsin, where the school district formerly had a union contract that stipulated 12 paid sick days and three paid “emergency” days per year. In 2011 the school board – freed by the state from the shackles of union collective bargaining – cut that down to a total of seven paid days off per year.

What was the result? Teachers started coming to work more and the cost of employing substitute teachers dropped by nearly $133,000 between 2010-11 and 2013-14.

Many other public school districts around Michigan have the same types of issues.

But that lesson has not been learned in Michigan, and the Grand Rapids district is just one of many with overgenerous paid absence policies.

The union contract in the Grand Haven district gives teachers up to 15 sick days per year, and allows the use of four of those as personal days. It also allows teachers who are union officials to take a combined 25 paid days off per year to perform union business.

The estimated 326 teachers in Grand Haven took a combined 2,849 sick days in 2013-14, which averages out to 8.7 days per teacher. They also took 1,263 personal days, which averages 3.8 days per teacher. That combines for an average of 12.5 days missed per teacher, which forced the district to pay $432,404 in fees for substitute teachers.

In the Kalamazoo district, employees covered by the teachers union contract get 10 sick days and two personal days per year. Unused sick days can accumulate without limit while personal days can accumulate up to four.

The contract also grants 30 days of paid leave for employees who are union officials to conduct union business.

In 2013-14, Kalamazoo employees took a combined 9,451 sick days and 2,553 personal days. That means the estimated 1,561 employees averaged 7.6 days per person.

The district shelled out $339,100 for substitute teachers.s