Let’s talk about your rights at work when it comes to managing your time! Article 5: Time Management of your contract is all about the who, what, and where of time. Last year’s negotiations brought some changes and strengthened this language, so here is the information you need to know about time:
- Your school must have a collaborative committee, OLT (Operational Leadership Team) should establish building level calendars, daily, weekly and yearly schedules, etc. (5-3 and 10-5)
- Educators have a 40 hour work week, including a 30 minute duty free lunch. (1-8 and 5-3-2-4) Your OLT should collaboratively develop educator report and end times throughout the week and take into account the days staff may need to flex their time by leaving early/ coming in later when there are all staff meetings before/ after school. To put it simply: you have a 40-hr work week not an 8-hour day – flex time staff in/out times to accommodate non-contact needs.
- You must receive no less than 225 minutes of planning per week, in at least 40 minute blocks (unless it is a modified schedule) within the student contact day. SPED teachers and providers must receive 300 minutes (total) of planning time per week. When there is a modified schedule, you should still receive planning time in at least 30 minute blocks. All educators should also receive an additional 30 minutes of planning time within the week (5-3-6),
- PLC and collaborative planning time are in ADDITION to individual plan time not instead of, however, teachers may choose to decide if they want to PLC during a plan time. This is a collaborative decision that should be made with all members of the team and cannot be forced. (5-3-6-1)
- There are 14 non-contact days this year, PreK-12. One day each semester will be reserved for District-directed learning. All other non-contact days will be scheduled by the school’s OLT and at least 60% of each individual day, or block of days, will be reserved for individual educator-directed activities. (5-3-4)
- Before and after the student day, you cannot be required to supervise students other than any normal arrival and departure procedures such as bus duty, crosswalk duty, etc. (5-3-7)
- If you cover a class due to a lack of a substitute, you will be paid 20% of the guest teacher pay for each hour that they cover a class and you do not need to request the pay, it will be reflected on your paycheck automatically. This includes taking a portion of students into your regular class when there is no guest teacher. Furthermore, each school is required to come up with a sub rotation schedule that includes ALL licensed educators in the building, this includes all teachers, counselors, DTL’s AND building Administrators. (5-3-8) Good news here – guest teacher pay has increased this year to $170! This not only helps us fill vacancies, but also means more money for you when you have to cover ($34/ hr).
- Educators can be required to work up to 22.5 hours outside of the 40 hour work week throughout the school year. This is the maximum, not a minimum to be achieved, and should be scheduled by your OLT. If you are an educator split between more than one school, you will collaboratively develop a schedule with your administration before the end of August for how you will split these 22.5 hours. (5-3-3)
- Many of the rights you have in Article 5 are dependent on your school’s collaboration and OLT following the procedures in Article 10: Collaboration. If your school needs help with collaboration, talk to your AR or reach out to your assigned JCEA staff member.
Whew! Did you have the time to read all that? 😉 If you have any additional questions please contact JCEA or your building AR.
As a reminder, wins like these are possible because of the strength of your union. This Labor Day, celebrate the hard working educators in your union and invite someone in your school to join JCEA.