Vacation Days

Anne Arundel County students will probably lose a day of spring break and have three days in June tacked onto the school year to make up for four days school was closed due to winter weather.Interim Superintendent Carol S. Parham will recommend that the school board adopt that plan tonight rather than add four days to the end of the school year. Students missed eight days in January and February, but only four emergency closing days were built into the school calendar. The state requires students to have 180 days of school.

Is it legal for our employer to force us to use a vacation day when our building closes for holidays? For example, the building was closed for Columbus Day. To be paid, we had to use a vacation day. The company also said we would have to do the same if the building closes because of inclement weather. We feel we should get a paid day off instead of being forced to take these days as vacation days. I prefer to schedule my vacation time with my family. Companies have a lot of leeway here because they aren't required to offer paid days off. So minus a union contract or other employment agreement, the companies can determine freely how much paid time off their employees receive and when they use that time.

Chief Judge Robert C. Murphy is asking Maryland's Circuit Court judiciary to consider giving up five vacation days to help ease budget pressures. But at Baltimore's courthouse yesterday the judges were voicing a respectful "no.""The proposal is totally unacceptable to us," Administrative Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan of the Baltimore Circuit Court said.Cutting back on vacation time from 27 days to 22 won't fatten the state treasury, while it may leave overworked judges closer to burnout, Judge Kaplan said.

Harford County's school board has agreed to pay more than $271,000 in a settlement to end the contract of school Superintendent Jeffery N. Grotsky -- a deal that triggered criticism yesterday from the county executive and other local officials.School officials said yesterday that the settlement includes his annual salary of $107,100 for the remaining two years of his contract, $46,000 of unused sick leave, $7,775 for remaining vacation time, $520 a month in health insurance payments until August and a $375-a-month car allowance until June 8.Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann -- who was not involved in the financial negotiations to end Grotsky's tenure -- expressed concern about the amount of the payment.

Baltimore school officials and parents said, "Rats!"But the students cheered an unexpected day off today when rodent infestation delayed the opening of the school year at Montebello Elementary, which has undergone a three-year, $5 million renovation.While children savored another chance to stay up late, school system workers scrambled last night to rid Montebello of the gnawing nuisance common to urban areas, especially during construction projects.Parents, teachers and construction workers had reported seeing the rodents and rat droppings, prompting Superintendent Walter Amprey and school officials to delay the opening of Montebello until tomorrow.

Sarah Boone knows how to work hard, run hard and kick back. She also knows what to wear. By day, the business-location consultant for the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation is suited up in understated elegance. But get her in a tropical clime, and she's strictly Tommy Bahama. In fact, when Boone and her family vacationed in Jamaica last Thanksgiving, "We all wore our Tommy Bahama outfits. My sons thought it was cool, and my husband even wears it. It is absolutely, positively my breakaway from the work routine," says Boone, who lives in Annapolis.

Shock Trauma!The company mangot fired today.He left behinda $78,000 salary,136 unused vacation days,1 company car and 1 divorce.When he got fired, he toldhis boss, "You can't fire me;I quit!" He then stoodin the parking lot outsideand screamed obscenitiesto his co-workers until dusk.In 14 weeks, he will be buriedwearing his bronze, 30-yearcompany service pin. Theobituary will say he diedfrom "natural causes" --just like the others.Rush Hour(a Haiku journey)'A small pothole hearsthe unspoken banal barkof lives worn like tires.

ANNAPOLIS -- Heeding the pleas of judges who said they'd rather turn salary back to the state during the budget crisis than give up vacation days, the Maryland Court of Appeals voted last night to let the judges choose either option."

Somebody punched out the Oriole bird Thursday night, and it wasn't an angry Blue Jay. Police say it was an out-of-town cop from Long Island, N.Y., who had been drinking too much."

American workers have a reputation of all work and no play. We get less vacation time than our peers in other countries, and even then we don't always use it all. But what if you could put the cash equivalent of those unused vacation days into your 401(k)? This option has been available for many years, but never caught on with employers. But lately there's been a renewed interest, says Lisa Van Fleet, a lawyer and benefits expert with Bryan Cave LLP in St. Louis. Last year's Pension Protection Act focused on 401(k)