Reply To: 03/27/25 Meeting

[Antonia Moore]

Paid Family Medical Leave that would not count against accrued sick days

Carla Chase speaking on the Jan. 2021 Paid Family Medical Leave that does not require district to participate, and Agawam has not.

In 2010, off-and-on, Carla’s husband experienced a tickle in the back of his throat, and at the dentist, and it was Stage 4 head and throat cancer. He was the breadwinner of the family, and he had to receive less income than he already had

Carla sent an email to Supt. at the time (Mary), and explained what was going on. Mary approved Carla using all the sick time that she needed so she didn’t have to go without a paycheck.

In 2011, when he was done with his treatments, he went for a followup head scan, and were called in right away for results, and the cancer metastisized to his lungs, 5 more tumors, and he had a prognosis of no more than two years.

Bill Sapelli was then superintendent, Carla reached out to explain the situation, and Bill gave her the option for the same deal she had last time.

People shouldn’t have to worry about depleting their finances to care for a loved one.

Mark passed away in April of 2013, but the one thing Carla knew was that she had the support of the school district to be able to fight the illness. That can’t be done without the support of a district. The last thing someone needs to do when contending with something like this is to know where the money is coming from. Husband lost the health insurance plan the last 6 months of his illness.

It is imperative that the district re-look at the number of days we are allowed to take and be paid, and to look at the twelve weeks paid leave so no one else has to go through worrying about banking enough sick days.