Being able to take an extended break from school is something most students dream for. Staff have this ability, most commonly for parental leave.
Since 2014, DCPS has allowed teachers to take eight weeks of paid leave on top of their accumulated sick days through the Paid Family Leave program. The paid leave can apply with the birth or legal placement of a child to a DCPS employee or if an employee’s family member has a serious health condition that requires their time and care.
Last school year, many staff members took parental leave: science teacher Hallie Baskin, Spanish teacher Victor Vela, along with social studies teachers Allegra Penny and Matthew Burgoyne. Over the summer, English teacher Joseph Welch became a father. Last year, social worker Lacey Maddrey returned to school after having her second daughter.
Baskin had her firstborn on December 12, four days after she took her first day of leave. Her classes were covered by two long term substitutes. Uniquely, her son is also at daycare right across the street at Two Birds. “I actually live pretty far away from the school, so I wanted to be close by in case they need me, he gets sick, or there’s an emergency. This way, I get to go over during lunch and planning periods to see him and feed him.”
“Being a parent has made me want to reach out to parents more,” Baskin said. “I know now firsthand that I want to know what my son is doing just so that I continue to be involved.”
Additionally, this new facet of Baskin’s life has allowed her to connect to fellow staff members. “I definitely relate to teachers who are parents more and I understand much more now where they are coming from, trying to find the balance [between teaching and parenting life].”
“Right now, I am just trying to take it day by day and be the best mom and the best teacher that I can be to the best of my abilities,” Baskin affirmed.
With three months of leave under his belt, Vela returned to school this August refreshed. Though his perspective on teaching hasn’t changed much, he thoroughly enjoyed “spending time with [his] daughter and having time to bond together as a family.”
“I’m busier than I was before though,” Vela laughed.
Penny’s daughter was born on April 7 and she returned at the beginning of this year. In all, she spent about four months with her newborn and three-year-old at home. A student teacher took over her classes when she left for leave. “The timing was very fortuitous,” she reflected.
Penny noted that “it’s very nice to switch from [teaching to parenting]” when leaving. “When I go home, my brain is completely taken away, which is wonderful.”
With his classes also handed off to a student teacher, Burgoyne left school on March 16. Returning now, Burgoyne “values nothing more than work-life balance.”
“I find it very difficult to do my job after the hours I am contracted to work. The problem with teaching is that it requires a lot of hours outside of school. I’m having to recalibrate how I think about my day so that I can be home and present,” Burgoyne said.
With his son at home, Burgoyne “was able to refocus and think about how much of me is my job, how much of my identity is what I do instead of who I am. It is insane to think that I went from teaching kids US history to teaching a kid how to not choke on a toy or how to sit up. It’s a very different kind of responsibility and I am obsessed with it!”
Just days before school started again and after a long eight days in the hospital, Welch’s family added a new face: their firstborn son. With such close timing to the beginning of school, Welch had to “do everything in double time.”
“I’ll use the rest of my leave in March,” Welch explained. “My wife will use her leave first and, when she finishes it, I’ll use the rest of mine.”
“Having a son is a dream; it was a long process to get to this point,” Welch said. “I am very very grateful that through my and my wife’s job that our insurances are very good. The flipside of that is that it makes me even more angry that how many people aren’t able to afford [fertility tests and other healthcare treatments related to pregnancy] or even have to go into debt to start a family, it is really a shame.”
Maddrey’s little one came during the 2022 holiday break—“She decided to come early!”
During her maternity leave, which spanned from January through June, she kept strong relationships with both teachers and students online, though her services were deeply missed. Maddrey’s caseload was distributed amongst the other five social workers.
“As therapists, we do tons of different types of evidence-based training to understand the cognitive processes of young people,” Maddrey said. “You don’t have to have a child to understand how a young person’s brain works and to be able to create relationships with them. What [being a parent] has changed for me is understanding other adults in the building that are parents. Why they are tired, why they have little patience; the obligations and demands outside of the building that may impact their day-to-day. I now have more empathy for people with young children at home.”
