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After Parkland Tragedy, Additional Sick Days Granted to Marjory Stoneman Douglas Employees

by Jill Fox October 4, 2018

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After Parkland Tragedy, Additional Sick Days Granted to Marjory Stoneman Douglas Employees 1

Marjory Stoneman Douglas by Sharon Aron Baron

By: Jill Fox

At Tuesday’s Broward County school board meeting, an agreement was passed giving every Marjory Stoneman Douglas employee who was present the day of the school shooting, additional sick days.

The collaborative agreement with the Broward Teacher’s Union (BTU) called The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which gives teachers ten additional days of sick leave, passed overwhelmingly from members of the school board.

Linda Gonzalez, Director of Employee Labor Relations explained that this MOU includes, not just the MSD employees that were at the school that day, but any employee that is a parent of an MSD student, any employee who is a spouse of an employee at MSD, and any employee who lost an immediate family member.

“After the severe unfortunate tragedy, we sat down and came up with some great ideas so that we could bring relief,” said Anna Fusco, BTU President. “It took some time; there just needed to be semantics and all provisions in place so that we could help out those that were affected by this tragedy,”

The MOU includes wording that if anyone feels that they were left out, they will get one-on-one conversations with district personnel in the Broward Teachers Union to speak on behalf of what their individual needs may be.

According to Fusco, the reason for this is so no one feels that they were intentionally left out or forgotten, and so they tried to make sure that everyone was covered.

School Board Member, Abby Freedman, who represents Coral Springs and Parkland, thanked her colleagues at the meeting, “Thank you to the BTU and to the other bargaining units for always looking out for your employees. If there is ever anyone that needs to speak and be heard, you are seeing to it that they are, so thank you.”

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Jill Fox

Jill Fox is an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer. She has worked in public relations and television for over 20 years. Fox lives in Parkland with her husband and their two children.