Re:  “Teachers have nothing to complain about,” March 14

Dear Mr. Sawchuk,

We are all teachers within five years of retirement who among us have accumulated over 2,900 sick days, earned at a rate of 15 days per year per teacher.

While you have made a number of questionable claims in your letter, we have chosen to address your statement that teachers “receive a lump sum payment for sick days not used… which could total $44,000.”

This statement is not true in School District 6, as unused sick leave is not paid to teachers upon retirement here — by the grace of God we will retire with both our sick leave and our good health intact.

By your calculations, this will also “save” our employer up to $44,000. Whether this payout happens in other school districts or not is immaterial; your letter was sent to an Invermere paper and has misled anyone, local or not, who has read it.

To quote your own words: “this is bogus and propaganda,” and deservedly puts the entire rest of your letter under question. If you still insist that we will get paid out for our sick leave please have a representative of our local School Board (No. 6, Rocky Mountain) list the procedure for claiming same in the media in which you started this lie: in an Invermere newspaper.

David Sharp, J.A. Laird 419 days

Grant McDonald, EMP, 400 days

Herb Weller, J.A. Laird, 394 days

Barb Gagatek, EMP, 370

Greg Constable, DTSS, 331 days

Doug Murray, WTA President, 279 days

Dianna Tegart,  Edgewater , 215days

Willa Love, EMP, 221

Robin Wass, Open Doors, 175 days

Alison Bell, DTSS , 168 days