Senate advances bill to restore personal and sick leave for reemployed retired teachers

The Guam Legislature on the floor advanced Bill 48-38 COR, a measure to restore limited sick and personal leave for retired teachers who return to work for the Guam Department of Education (GDOE).

The bill, as explained on the floor, would let reemployed retired teachers accrue sick leave at the same rate as active GDOE 12-month employees (four hours per pay period) and grant returning teachers 72 hours of personal leave for the school year. The bill applies to limited-term contracts that typically run from August through May and specifies the leave would not roll into permanent-employee accruals.

Supporters said the change is intended to ease a staffing shortage and to encourage experienced educators to return to classrooms. "They're in full support of just that," said Senator Aborja, the bills author, referring to discussions with GDOE about the proposal. Senator Tydigui, who questioned whether the measure contained unneeded…