Article 10. Hours of Employment

The duty day for full-time teachers, including lunch, shall be eight hours. The eight hours shall normally consist of up to five (5) hours of assigned student contact and two and one-half (2-1/2) hours of instructional management time.

Shall be defined as time when the teacher is working with an assigned class, individual or small group learning activity. It also includes the time between regular classes such as passing time, other transitional activities and other activities as enumerated below.

A. Examples of appropriate Assigned Student Contact (may occur outside of the student contact time) are:

1. Department/Grade Level Discussions

2. Office Hours

3. Resource Room

B. Student Contact Time (not used during the five (5) hours of Assigned Student Contact) may be assigned as determined by the building administration in authentic collaboration with the teaching staff. If consensus is unable to be reached, then the affected staff member may agree to a one year reduction of FTE to reflect actual minutes taught in that year. Staff member's FTE entitlement will return to the previous FTE entitlement for the following year.

Shall be defined as the hours of the duty day outside of designated prep time, student contact time and duty free lunch. This time is designated to address the responsibilities of the teacher which contribute to the school as a whole, to their instructional effectiveness, communications with students, parents and colleagues and carrying out school board policy.

Examples of work responsibilities are:

Lesson preparation

Evaluation of student work

Materials preparation

Conferences/Office Hours

Students who need extra help

Parent contacts

Data management/record keeping

Professional meetings

Contact with student service providers such as special education, gifted and talented, etc.

Committee work

Staff development (including making up missed professional development activities)

Staff meetings

Collaboration

Department/Grade Level discussions

Teacher preparation time shall be defined as a block of time during the student contact day for the teacher to prepare for their teaching assignments. The teacher shall not be responsible for classroom, building or meeting activities during preparation time. Preparation time for special education staff will not include formal evaluation of students.

Within the student day, for every twenty-five (25) minutes of instructional time, five (5) additional minutes of preparation time shall be provided licensed teachers. Preparation time shall be provided in one or two uninterrupted blocks of time during the student day. Creative implementation for teacher preparation time may be developed by mutual agreement between the building administration and the building licensed teaching staff.

Examples of work responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

Lesson preparation

Evaluation of student work

Materials preparation

Teacher initiated team collaboration.

EM-R and the district mutually agree that under certain circumstances, the need may arise to schedule Professional Learning Community time (PLCs) during preparation time. This practice will be considered acceptable if both building principal and the affected PLC team agree.

Elementary Teacher Preparation Time

Teachers must receive at least 5 minutes of preparation time, within the student day, for every 25 minutes of contact time. Three hundred minutes of contact time per day would require 60 minutes of preparation time.

If teachers average 1500 minutes of student contact time per week, they must also average 60 minutes of preparation time per day or 300 minutes per week.

Each teacher should have a minimum of one uninterrupted 30-minute block of preparation time per day. On days that have more than 30 minutes of prep time, the prep time will be provided in one or two uninterrupted blocks of time.

See Addendum 5-C for additional information on elementary preparation time.

Teachers in buildings which participate in regularly scheduled evening parent-teacher conferences, and who are required to conduct such conferences for which compensation is not provided, shall receive compensatory time. If teachers with multiple buildings assignments attend parent-teacher conferences with approval of respective building principals, compensatory time shall be provided. Compensatory time may be taken only during those times when the teacher is not regularly scheduled to fulfill instructional or supervisory responsibilities and with the approval of the supervising administrator. One (1) hour of compensatory time will be allowed for each hour of excess service.

Teachers who are required to attend district meetings called by the appropriate director, other than an early release day, which lasts beyond the normal duty day shall be eligible for compensatory time corresponding to the amount of time the district meeting extends beyond the normal duty day. This provision also applies to IEP meetings that extend beyond the normal duty day. The compensatory time shall be taken within four (4) weeks of the date the meeting occurred and may be taken only during those times when the teacher is not regularly scheduled to fulfill instructional or supervisory duties.

Principals/Supervisors may also request to schedule IEP meetings that are scheduled to start outside of the duty day, with mutual agreement of the employee, which will be compensated at the development rate for licensed staff. For IEP meetings that start during the duty day and exceed the duty day by 30 minutes or more, the teacher will have the option of time carding at the development rate or compensatory time.

Elementary Art, Physical Education, World Language and Music Specialists shall be assigned a maximum number of 290 minutes of student contact time per day. Specialists will receive the same amount of prep-time as other licensed teachers. In addition, one (1) ten (10) minute break per day shall be provided between scheduled classes. Number of class periods and length of time will be agreed upon by the specialists and principals within the framework described in this section.

Each teacher shall have a thirty (30) minute duty-free lunch period per day. Teachers who leave their building during this time shall notify the building office before leaving.

A teacher volunteering for duty during their duty-free lunch shall be compensated for the service they perform at the rate established in Appendix B for that service, prorated up to thirty (30) minutes.

No teacher shall be away from their place of duty during the hours of assigned instructional purposes or additional activities except as approved by the supervising administrator. Teachers who need to leave the place of duty during the hours of preparation time shall notify the supervising administrator through the procedure established in the building.

Teachers shall remain on duty until students under their supervision have left the building or are under the supervision of another teacher.

Individual exceptions to these rules and regulations may be approved by the principal or supervising administrator.

Full-time elementary and secondary teaching specialists who daily travel between buildings shall be provided with preparation time equivalent to other teachers and a duty-free lunch period and shall not be required to use such time for travel. Wherever possible, teachers should not be assigned to more than 2 sites.

The normal teaching load for full-time secondary classroom teachers who travel between buildings shall not exceed 300 minutes of student contact time as defined in Article Ten, Section 1.

Until mutually agreed upon by a building committee, the existing structure of the student day at each school shall remain the same. Any significant changes to the conditions of employment as a result of committee recommendations shall be negotiated with EM-R.

The equivalent of one (1) full elementary staff development day prior to the first reporting day will be designated as teacher work time to prepare report cards and conference materials. The equivalent of one (1) day after the first reporting day and prior to the second reporting day will be designated for the same. Teachers may choose to complete this work remotely.

The equivalent of one (1) full prep day will occur following the end of the first trimester, and before the start of the second trimester. The equivalent of one (1) full day of prep will occur following the end of the second trimester, and before the start of the third trimester. Teachers may choose to complete this work remotely.

School Psychologists will have access to up to three (3) days in which they may choose to work remotely per school year. This time will allow for uninterrupted time to complete reports. School Psychologists will collaborate with their building principal on scheduling these days.

Administrators will make every attempt to exempt classroom teachers from attending any building meetings on the days of their regularly scheduled conferences. Administrators will make every effort to not schedule building meetings on the days of regularly scheduled conferences. Further, teachers will make every attempt to not schedule conferences on nights of regularly scheduled building meetings. This does not apply to make-up conferences.