MIAMI -- Questions are swirling around a South Florida teacher who is also a state legislator. The main question: Just how much class time is State Representative Ralph Arza really giving his students at Miami Senior High School? Channel 10 Investigator Jilda Unruh has come up with some answers.

State Representative Ralph Arza is one of three state legislators who work for the Miami-Dade School District, but he is the only one who is a classroom teacher. According to documents we've obtained, Rep. Arza isn't in the classroom nearly as much as he's away from it.

State Representative Ralph Arza is a social studies teacher at Miami Senior High making $58,332. According to district officials, he is one of three team teachers who instruct approximately 150 students in the school's auditorium. Yet according to district documents, last school year Mr. Arza only worked 92 out of 212 work days, meaning he was absent more than half of the school year.

In fact, we've circled in red the number of days Rep. Arza was absent from school during the first five months of 2002. How do we know? His staff wrote letters we obtained, to the district, explaining his absences. According to those letters, most of the missed days were because of the legislative session. In fact, last school year, district records show Arza claimed 111 legislative workdays out of 212 school days. Mayco Villafana is spokesman for the school district.

How does the district justify paying a classroom teacher when they are not there months on end?

"The class itself is about government. So what better person than someone who is experienced and living right through the process of government to teach a student. Mr. Arza also keeps very close tabs by sending lessons to the students by e-mail. He also does videotaped lessons with the students. So he is a very involved teacher," Villafana said.

Damaris Daugherty heads the Teacher's Rights Advocacy Coalition.

"Children really benefit from having the teacher in the classroom where they can interact with that teacher, where they can ask questions," Daugherty said.

Rep. Arza had agreed to an on camera interview with Unruh at the school, after he'd completed a videotaping of his lessons for next week. However, after Unruh arrived, she was informed that Mr. Arza had called at the last minute and canceled the videotaping and would be unavailable for an interview.

We discovered something else about Rep. Arza's unique teaching schedule. According to his Miami High sign-out sheets we requested, when Arza does work, he often doesn't work a full day, which at Miami senior is 7:20 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. for all teachers. For example, of the 92 days Arza worked last school year, he signed out early 29 times, leaving anywhere from 8am to 1:00pm.

Most of the other teachers at that school aren't signing out at 9:15am, 11:15am or noon.

"That's correct, but that's because they're not a legislator," Villafana said.

We also discovered that out of the 29 early departures his sign-out sheets show that he returned to school only 4 times.

This is a pretty privileged classroom teacher.

"I don't know if that is a fair assessment or statement. In this particular case, you're dealing with an individual that has two jobs," Villafana said.

In fact, until November of last year, Arza and the other legislators who worked for the school board were allowed to double dip, getting paid by the state and the district. In Arza's case, that meant he collected a base teaching salary of $51,000, plus another $6,000 supplement for a 6th period, making his total compensation last year $57,375 even though he was only in class 92 out of 212 school days.

The district says Arza has been very meticulous in alerting the school about his time off, through letters he sends out. But we discovered Arza's notices to his school were often vague. Out of the 49 letters sent to his principal last year 19 said only that Arza "will be performing legislative duties." No other specifics were given.

"I think that some people might think it's unfair. Even though I'm sure he is in fact doing his legislative duties, but it's unfair to the kids and it's unfair to other teachers that he's out of the classroom as much as he is," Daugherty said.

Late Friday afternoon, after failing to show up for our scheduled interview, Rep. Arza sent Channel 10 a three-page letter, which says, among other things, "I feel that I am unfairly been (sic) singled out because I am a vocal critic of MDCPS ... I am confident that my constituents and my students will continue to support me and will not be swayed by Channel 10's politically motivated and one-sided report."

Meanwhile, Arza is proposing a bill that would require lawmakers, employed by a school district, to take unpaid leave while on legislative duties.