Teacher sick-out absences close dozens of Detroit schools

By Suzannah Gonzales

(Reuters) - Teachers calling in sick to protest deteriorating school conditions and other issues closed about two-thirds of the Detroit Public Schools on Monday, school district and union officials said.

Sixty-four of the district's 97 schools were closed on Monday morning, Detroit Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski said. Roughly 46,300 students are enrolled in district schools.

The school district is drowning under $3.5 billion of debt and needs to be rescued by the state of Michigan, according to a report released on Wednesday by Citizens Research Council of Michigan, a nonprofit public affairs group.

The district has been under state oversight since 2009, but continues to struggle financially because of falling enrollment and hefty pension and debt obligations.

Darnell Earley, emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools, has been meeting with the governor's administration and legislators, the district said on Facebook.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called on the teachers to end the sick-outs and state officials to address educational problems. He added he would visit schools on Tuesday with city health officials to ensure buildings meet health and building codes.

The city of Detroit exited the biggest-ever municipal bankruptcy in December 2014, but Earley and other officials have said that, unlike the city, a bankruptcy by the school system would be harmful because it would shift liabilities to the state and potentially other local governments.

Ivy Bailey, interim president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said in statements that teachers were being blamed rather than given assistance to help children.

She criticized the district's emergency manager for failing to fix the district's crumbling infrastructure, including too many students per class, mold in the classrooms and the disappearance of electives like art and music.

"The level of frustration has come to a head," Bailey said. "That frustration has led to the recent sick outs for which teachers are now being criticized."

In a call to teachers, Bailey said the sick-outs were being viewed publicly as wildcat strikes and the union needed to be united. She said teachers may have to hold a district-wide strike, but an authorization vote is needed first.

Low teacher pay and a teacher shortage are issues, but the focus of Monday's sick-out is the "deplorable conditions of the schools," Bailey said in an interview, adding some schools had rats and crumbling walls.

School officials anticipate reopening the schools on Tuesday.

Two schools were also closed on Thursday because of teacher absences, the district said on Facebook.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Editing by Ben Klayman, Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)

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