ARTICLE VII: Hours and Amounts of Work

When used in this article, the word “temporary” shall mean not longer than three school days. The word “emergency” shall mean a situation unforeseen prior to the previous six hours or for which no other reasonable remedy is available.

Section A: Outside Employment

Teaching is a full time position and employment at jobs other than teaching during the school year is to be discouraged if the outside job affects the teaching efficiency of the teacher, as determined by the administration.

Section B: Student Behavior and Control

Teachers shall be responsible for proper student behavior within the classroom and shall supervise corridors and playgrounds when directed to do so by the building principal or other administrator.

Teachers shall be responsible for the supervision of school property and for the supervision of school children under school related circumstances.

Section C: Bus Driving

When the school buses are used for school activities, the coaches or sponsors will not drive them except in emergencies or by their own option. A coach or sponsor who drives any school bus shall be properly qualified.

Section D: Teachers Duty Free Lunch

1. U.S.D. 470 shall provide each teacher with 30 consecutive, uninterrupted minutes of duty free lunch time daily. The principal at each elementary school shall employ a paraprofessional (or a teacher that wishes to apply) for lunchroom and playground supervision. A teacher so employed shall be paid an overload teaching salary.

2. In the event the above paraprofessional person or persons acceptable to the principal cannot be secured, or if terminated for any reason during the school year and not replaced by another paraprofessional person or persons, then the principal of each elementary school shall select, from the teachers of his building applying for the position, one or more teachers for supervision of the playground during the lunch period. In the event no teacher from his building applies for such position, then the building principal shall assign one or more of the teachers for such duties. Such assignment shall be temporary while the principal continues efforts to employ a paraprofessional person. The temporary assignment shall be terminated as soon as a paraprofessional is hired.

3. Each teacher (other than the daily appointed teacher; see paragraph 5) so selected or assigned for lunchroom supervision or playground supervision due to the lack of applicants shall receive an amount (hourly or yearly) equal to the overload teaching salary.

4. It must be understood that, no matter which of the preceding procedures is used, if a paraprofessional or teacher telephones to report being ill at too late a time to secure a substitute, the principal may assign a teacher to replace the absent paraprofessional or teacher on the lunchroom or playground period. Each teacher so assigned would receive compensation as described above in paragraph 3.

5. To insure that a professional certified employee is available to assist the paraprofessional if needed in an emergency, the principal of each elementary school shall designate one professional employee each day during each lunch period for this assignment. The professional employee shall remain in a designated portion of the building so that they can be readily located in an emergency. During inclement weather, supervision of students will remain the responsibility of the paraprofessionals, when facilities and scheduling allow. If further supervision is deemed necessary by the building principal, the teacher on emergency duty may be assigned to assist the paraprofessionals and would be compensated as described above in paragraph 3.

6. Nothing in this section shall prevent the principal from assigning any teacher to temporary, emergency supervision duties to insure that these supervisory responsibilities are met.

Section E: Planning Period

1. Each elementary teacher (grades 1-5) shall have 60 consecutive minutes daily and shall average at least 80 minutes/day per semester for planning/preparation. Kindergarten teachers and four-year old at-risk teachers will have 45 consecutive minutes daily and shall average at least 60 minutes/day per semester for planning and preparation. Elementary planning time will be generated using counselor presentations, library, art, music, physical education and additional personnel or program time to be determined by the building principals as needed to average 80 (60 for kindergarten and four-year old at-risk teachers) minutes per day per semester. If any elementary teacher's schedule does not provide this minimum amount of time then that teacher shall be paid in accordance with the overload teaching salary (see Article VI, Section D.) for that semester with the daily overload to be computed as follows: 80 (60 for kindergarten and four-year old at-risk teachers) minutes minus the number of minutes averaged per day during the semester for planning/preparation.

Planning/preparation time is that time during the students' school day when the teacher is not scheduled to supervise students.

Elementary teacher means classroom teacher, traveling teacher, librarian, counselor or any other elementary position.

2. At grade levels 6-12 when the instructional portion of each day is divided into class periods, one of these class periods shall be designated as the teachers planning/preparation period.

3. It is recognized that planning/preparation time shall be used for activities relating to the school program. Teachers shall not be assigned duties on a regular basis to be performed during their planning/preparation time. The use of the planning/preparation period shall be subject to the general supervision of the administrator. Teachers leaving during a planning period must sign out through the building principal’s office.

Section F: Grading and Preparation Time

A full dedicated workday will be provided each school year and an additional one-half workday will be provided to all teachers beginning in 2007-2008.

At the end of each grading period, grade reports as required by the building administration shall be due on the third school day following the end of the grading period , except at the end of second semester, grades will be due prior to teacher check-out. Teachers will be required to inform the administration of student failures regarding activities eligibility by the end of the first semester. Extensions may be granted as needed by building principals.

The end of the first semester shall be one full work day or two half-days for teachers as determined by the Board and administration. This time shall be teacher work time to grade finals, complete end of semester grades and reports, or to prepare for the upcoming semester.

Section G: Teachers' Workday

1. Beginning in 2007-2008, the number of contract days will be 188. All teachers shall be on duty seven (7) hours each contract day. Teachers shall work in accordance with established building time schedules. Such schedules shall include the beginning and ending times of the normal contract day (contract days free from inter-school meetings), the beginning and ending times of the pupils' school day, duty free lunch time(s), the times before and after the pupils' school day, and, in some buildings, the number of and times for teaching periods. A building's normal time schedule referred to in this section shall mean the established time schedule for a building at the time of ratification of this agreement or any building schedule established thereafter by the implementation of this agreement.

2. The Board of Education or its agents may not make any permanent schedule changes at any building or at any level (elementary, secondary) unless the teachers affected have had an opportunity to examine a detailed proposed change and to vote to approve or disapprove the proposed change by secret ballot. This ballot shall be prepared jointly by ACTA and a board designee. The results of such balloting shall be counted by a team made up of an equal number of ACTA and Board designees and shall be presented to the Board at a regular Board of Education meeting. Results of the teachers' balloting is only advisory to the Board.

3. On Fridays or on days preceding holidays for vacations, the teachers' duty day shall end 10 minutes after the close of the pupils' school day. This does not include such days when students are dismissed early so that teachers may attend district sponsored inservice activities. On these days, the teachers' duty day shall end 10 minutes after the close of the pupils' normal school day.

The following days shall be considered as holidays and shall not be contract days for teachers:

a. Labor Day

b. Thanksgiving Day and the day after

c. Christmas Vacation: Shall begin no later than with the dismissal of school on

December 22. School will not resume before January 3rd.

d. Good Friday

e. Spring Break: Consisting of at least 5 consecutive days of the week Monday through Friday. The Board shall determine the dates for Spring Break.

f. Memorial Day

g. Fourth of July

h. The Friday preceding Arkalalah shall be no more than a half contract day with teachers being dismissed for the holiday at or before 11:30 A.M.

4. Intraschool Meetings

All building level faculty meetings including all or part of a building's faculty, called by the principal or his designee (asst. principal, dept. head, etc.) shall follow these guidelines:

a. Before School Meetings--Meetings held before the start of school shall begin no earlier than 45 minutes prior to the beginning of the pupils' school day.

b. After School Meetings--After school meetings shall begin as soon as possible after the student dismissal time and shall not last over one hour. Meetings shall not be called on Fridays or on any day immediately preceding any holiday or other day upon which teacher attendance is not required at school except in an emergency.

c. The notice of a meeting, including an agenda, shall be given to the teachers involved at least 48 hours in advance except in an emergency. Teachers shall have the opportunity to suggest items for future agendas.

d. These time limits should be the goal but may be exceeded when conceiving, developing and drafting in connection with all Special Education staffing meetings.

e. In bona fide emergencies the time lines set forth in the guidelines (Paragraph 4, a, b, & c ) may need to be exceeded.

f. All teachers will meet not less than one-half day per quarter (each nine weeks) for curricular and academic planning/collaboration/mentoring coordinated by the building administrator and/or academic coach.

5. Interschool Meetings

Each teacher shall be held responsible for attendance at all professional meetings called by the Superintendent or his designee. These meetings will follow the guidelines below when possible:

a. Interschool meetings taking place outside of the usual school day, shall start no later than 3:45 PM or earlier than 7:15 AM. These meetings shall not last over one hour.

b. Notice of interschool meetings, including an agenda shall be given to the teachers involved at least 5 working days in advance except in case of emergency. Teachers shall have the opportunity to suggest items for future agendas.

c. The Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction working with Grade Level Coordinators, Department Heads and the Curriculum Council shall make every effort possible to limit the number and length of inter-school meetings. The Board and ACTA recognize that Shared Decision Making requires extra time and effort from those involved. However, they also recognize that only organized, productive meetings can accomplish the results both the Board and the professional staff desire.

ARTICLE VIII: Notification For District Personnel Openings

The Board recognizes the need for all certified personnel to be informed of job openings for teachers within the district. The following provisions will be in effect to insure that this is met.

A. The personnel office will electronically post all teaching vacancies on the district’s web site and notify staff via electronic mail.

B. The personnel office will electronically post on the district web site a listing of vacancies and newly created positions for the following school year.

C. Each position will have a electronic posting date. The date will be the official date that the position is first posted.

D. The Board will maintain a list of teachers who wish to be notified of specific job openings and attempt to contact them in a timely manner regarding such openings, should they occur during the school year. In order for a request to be considered for an opening in the district, such requests must be received in the personnel office no later than five (5) school days after the official electronic posting date.

E. Any position openings that occur after the last contract day that classroom teachers are required to be in their buildings and until the first contract day of the new school year will be filled as soon as possible. An attempt will be made to contact any teacher who has submitted a request for a transfer form to the personnel office by the last contract day classroom teachers are required to be in their building will be notified about the opening. Notification will also be sent to the president of the teachers’ association and electronically posted on the district web site.

F. The vacancy list shall include:

1. Position title

2. Building location

3. Status, i.e., permanent, temporary, part-time, or itinerant

4. Qualifications desired

5. Person to contact for further information

G. Present staff shall be allowed to apply for vacant positions. The Board has the right to offer the position to present staff or employ personnel new to the district in order to best match an individual to the position.