Sunnyside Unified School District has 200 teachers who have each accrued more than 400 hours of accumulated paid time off and district officials are trying to come up with a plan to balance the books. 

That is proving to be tricky with the district’s use it or lose it PTO policy. Teachers can’t sell their time so when they take their days off, the district has to replace them with substitute teachers. That means on those PTO days, the district is essentially paying two teachers to teach one class – the teacher who is being paid to take the day off and the teacher brought in to teach the class.

Sunnyside Unified School District pays substitute teachers $150 per day, $165 per day for long-term subs, according to the district’s website. 

Desert View High School history teacher Patrick Donohoe is currently sitting at 656 accumulated hours, which adds up to about 87 school days. His colleague Samuel Mendivil has 1,074 hours or 143 school days. If both were to use up that time, the district would have to pay $37,950 for subs to cover their classes. 

“We currently lack options for our teachers to be reimbursed for their accumulative PTO hours and we want to put a system in place, however, by still remaining fiscally responsible,” said Sunnyside Superintendent Jose Gastelum.  

The district’s Governing Board has begun researching solutions that could include some sort of buyback option and has had conversations with the Sunnyside Education Association, which represents the teachers. But there is no timetable for proposed changes.

Tucson area school districts typically offer their teachers either a buy-back option or a payout option at retirement for unused PTO. Each district’s policies differ, but under the buy-back option, teachers sell back their unused hours at the end of each school year.  The payout option allows teachers to sell back their unused hours when they retire or leave the district. While payouts are one-time deals at retirement, buybacks can happen multiple times as the PTO builds.

 “We feel there are more benefits in a buyback, however, we are still researching how other school districts handle their classified employee’s PTO,” Gastelum said. “We need our people to feel valued because when they feel valued, it makes them want to come to work.”

As it works out a solution, Sunnyside might want to look at how its neighbors deal with their employees’ unused PTO for inspiration. 

 Marana Unified School District has a PTO buy-back and payout option. Once teachers accrue 975 accumulative PTO hours, they can sell back 75 hours at 25% of their current daily wage. Daniel Contorno, the district’s chief financial officer, said daily wages could be as high as $250 based on tenure.

Marana also offers a PTO payout option for retirement-eligible employees that pays 50% of the daily rate for as many as 125 PTO hours.Teachers must have worked with the district for 10 years and are at least 50 years old to qualify.  

Contorno said that the district is having to reevaluate its PTO buy-back option because of how long it takes teachers to reach 975 hours. Marana teachers receive 90 PTO hours per school year.

Meanwhile in the Sahuarita Unified School District, PTO payout is the teachers’ only option for unused PTO.

Similar to Marana, teachers from the Sahuarita District can receive a payout at retirement only if they have spent 10 consecutive years with the district and are at least 50 years old. However, teachers are only able to sell back 200 hours worth of PTO at $80 a day. If the teacher were to have more than 200 hours of accumulated PTO then they have two options: use it before they retire or donate it. 

Amber Woods, the district’s director of community outreach, said teachers could donate their extra PTO to other teachers within the district who could use the extra sick days. 

Vail Unified School District follows a similar approach to seniority as Marana and Sahuarita. Vail has a buy-back in place for their teachers who maintain a minimum of 90 days of PTO, which takes about nine years to accrue. Once eligible, teachers can sell back six of their days at 50% of their daily wage according to the Sunnyside Unified School District Researched Information. We reached out multiple times to Michelle Quiroz, the Director of Finance for Vail Unified School District but couldn’t reach her to comment further on the district’s buy-back.

Desert View’s Mendivil said taking the time off during the school year can be stressful. On those school days off, he often finds himself worrying about his students, “I’m constantly thinking about what period we’d be in right now or what questions my students may have that aren’t being answered when I’m not there,” he said. “It’s not as relaxing because I’m worried about my students.”

“The amount of learning that occurs when a sub is in place of the teacher is very minimal,” Mendivil’s colleague Donohoe added. “It’s hard to teach new content to students when we’re not there. That’s why I keep showing up; I’m here for my students.”

The Sunnyside Education Association has led efforts to adopt a buy-back or payout with the Sunnyside district, said the association’s President Mari Martinez. She said that they are in the beginning phase of discussions with the Governing Board and District Leadership.

“Our certified staff deserves a PTO buyback and/or payout policy that reflects the value of our hard work, dedication, and loyalty to our district,” Martinez said. “It’s time that we benefit from our accrued PTO hours.” 

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.