The Hastings Prince Edward School Board is doing relatively well when it comes to the number of sick days taken by teachers and support staff.
Ontario’s Auditor General looked at data from 50 school boards across the province which showed sick days increased by 29% in the 5 years from 2011 to 2016.
However, sick day usage in the the Hastings Prince Edward School Board rose only 22% over that period.
Meanwhile, the average number of sick days taken by a Hastings Prince Edward board employee was 11.6 days in 2016 which was exactly the same as the provincial average.
In 2016, it cost the local board 7.2 million dollars to cover the cost of absence due to illness, an 18% increase over 2011.
That percentage increase was much lower than at many other school boards.
