Jordan District says "You can't have a baby. And don't get cancer."

You know, I've been dealing with a lot of crap from my district. I've listened to arguments and problems all year about cutting teachers pay, and jobs, and all the crap they need to do to balance the budget. I understand that the money has to come from SOMEWHERE. I know the board has a really, really hard job. I feel for them--no matter what they do, everyone's mad. I get that. And I was relieved when teacher jobs were saved, without raising taxes--though I would had supported a tax increase.

But now, I'm livid. Because with the new budget proposal out yesterday, Jordan District has basically said, "YOU CAN'T HAVE A BABY. YOU CAN'T GET CANCER. YOU CAN'T GET SICK."

How did they say this? They are eliminating the Sick Bank. This is a fund where every teacher donates two of their sick days into a big pool. Then, if you have a special need and don't have the sick days to cover it, you can APPLY to get some of the days out of the sick bank. This is really useful for teachers who have cancer or some other awful disease. And I used 8 days of sick bank last year when I had Afton. Becauase, you see, JSD makes you use EVERY SINGLE SICK DAY you have, before they will let you use the sick bank. So after you give birth, you have NO MORE sick days until the next school year. So what do you do when your baby gets sick? Or when you get an infection? What the crap do you do?

Well, you take unpaid leave I suppose. It's very expensive. They don't just take from your paycheck what you would have made that day--no, they take some of your summer money too. If you work 180 days a year, they take 1/180th of your pay. So it's very expensive, especially if you are taking several weeks. The next time I have a baby (and NO I'm NOT pregnant!) I will have to take eight weeks for a C-Section. 8 weeks--that's what? Seven thousand dollars? Are you friggin' kidding me?

Ok, I know. There are probably a lot of jobs out there that don't give paid maternity leave. Maybe I'm just a complainer. Maybe I should be grateful I got it last time. Maybe I should just have a baby in the summer. And maybe I won't be able to get pregnant when I want to, and then my baby will cost me $7,000. Or, in other words, MY HOUSE. Cause if I have no income for 8 weeks, I can't make my house payment. So there's my choices. I can keep my house and have no more children, or I can have a child and lose everything else.

Being a mom puts me at a huge disadvantage. The district is full of teachers who are older without kids, who never use a sick day and have accumulated YEARS worth. And yet if you are a mom, you have maternity leave and sick kids and yet you don't get any extra days. They can't just give you "maternity" days. They make you use every day you've got. I think it's total discrimination.

So thank you, JSD. You didn't cut my pay, and I thank you. But I'll still lose my house one way or another.