Article content continued

In her annual report at the end of December 2017, the province’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, pointed out after studying 50 school boards that sick days jumped by 30% in the five years after the sick leave payout ended.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

At the time, Lysyk suggested that school boards put in place better sick leave policies, including better absence reporting, tracking and data analysis.

Still, from reports, the June Flu has been a perennial problem from the early 2000s, and not just at the Toronto school boards.

“It’s deja vu,” education consultant Doretta Wilson said Friday.

“One wonders how much of this is still happening because of the refusal of trustees to actually manage and govern.”

Wilson speculates that absenteeism is more common in June because teachers are just plain pooped or have sick days to use up.

“School boards need to dig for the real reasons,” she said.

Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association president Liz Stuart said the well-being of teachers is greatly impacted by the lack of services and supports for students, along with the increasing frequency of violent incidents in schools.

“The problems will only get worse as a result of the Ford government’s cuts to education,” Stuart added.

TCDSB spokesman Shazia Viahos said the board is working with its “labour partners” to address and reduce absenteeism rates.

“There could be a number of reasons why teachers are away from the classroom, including personal or family illness, bereavement, urgent personal business or PA days, to name a few,” Viahos said.

Representatives of the public teachers unions chose not to respond to requests for comment.

But Bird of the TDSB said the school boards, like most in Ontario, have seen an increase in teacher absences over recent years.

“If it is discovered that staff have misused these days, disciplinary action is taken,” he said, adding that in the next round of collective agreements they hope school boards will look to improve the process around sick days being used properly.

slevy@postmedia.com