School Day The school day for members of the bargaining unit shall not exceed seven and one-half (7½) hours of consecutive time which shall include a duty-free, uninterrupted lunch period of no less than thirty (30) minutes.
School Calendar The Dual Credit course schedule will be determined by the location of the course delivery, provided that the required contact hours and prerequisites are met. The instructional calendar for the high school portion of the School will be based on the School District calendar and comply with all related TEA regulations for school attendance. The School District will adjust its schedule as necessary to enable Students to enroll in and attend the college- level courses provided by College. The School District and College will coordinate the State Student assessment requirements to ensure said assessments are administered without penalty. The School District, School and College will ensure that the School calendar accounts for the required per-semester contact hours for courses. When the instructional delivery is on the College site, it may be necessary for Students to attend classes on days when the School District is closed (e.g., different holiday closures). When Students take classes at the College scheduled on days when School is closed, the School District will ensure that at least one staff member with administrative authority be on call and available to be reached by the College’s Office of High School Programs or other College staff in case of emergency. The designated School staff member will have access to Student emergency contact information. While the College agrees to make scheduling accommodations for required State assessments, including the STAAR and End of Course Exams, all contact hour requirements must be met. For assessments not mandated by the State, the College and School District will come to a mutual agreement on administration dates in order to appropriately manage disruptions of college courses and ensure contact hour requirements are met.
ALTERNATE SCHOOL CALENDAR 1. In this article, an alternative school calendar is a school calendar that differs from the standard school calendar as specified in Schedule 1 (Supplement) of the School Calendar Regulation 114/02.
2. When a school district intends to implement an alternate school calendar, written notification shall be provided to the local no later than forty (40) working days prior to its implementation. The employer and the local shall meet within five (5) working days following receipt of such notice to negotiate modifications to the provisions of the agreement that are directly or indirectly affected by the proposed change(s). The aforesaid modifications shall preserve, to the full legal extent possible, the original intent of the agreement.
3. The process outlined below in Article D.6.4 through Article D.
Length of School Day 4.4.1 For each school the length of the “school day” shall be determined according to the requirement that students are normally required to be in attendance for two HD, one before noon, the other after noon.
4.4.2 The normal teaching load in respect of any one day is therefore related to that requirement and takes account of the normal timetabling practices of each school.
School Year Teacher assignable time will be capped at 1200 hours per school year.
Holiday Falling on a Scheduled Workday An Employee who works on a designated holiday which is a scheduled workday shall be compensated at the rate of double time for hours worked, plus a day off in lieu of the holiday; except for Christmas and New Year's when the compensation shall be at the rate of double time and one-half (2½) for hours worked, plus a day off subject to this Agreement.
Billing Cycle The billing on each matter shall be submitted on a calendar month basis (30 day cycle). A final bill for all outstanding charges should be forwarded immediately by the Firm upon the conclusion of each matter. Citizens has sole discretion to consider billing for work performed which is submitted late to Citizens. Late is defined as billed events that occurred more than 60 days prior to it being initially submitted to Citizens for payment. Citizens will not honor interest fees or other late fees assessed by any Firm or Vendor for any invoice submitted for payment. Billing submitted late to Citizens will not be given priority review.
8.2.1 No initial appeal will be considered if filed with Citizens more than sixty (60) days after the date of initial denial/reduction by Citizens for the billed event. The date of initial denial/reduction is the date the invoice was paid. Citizens will consider only one appeal by the Firm for each invoice submitted for payment and all line entries appealed from the initial invoice must be included on a single appeal. Appeals must provide additional information for Citizens to reconsider a prior reduction. Appeals that fail to provide additional information will not be considered and Citizens initial denial/reduction of the invoice will be upheld.
8.2.2 Each invoice submitted to Citizens shall only reflect work that is performed within a single calendar month (approximately a thirty (30) day period). Firms should not submit invoices that contain line item dates that occur outside the period of a single calendar month neither should invoices contain multiple months of billing. Only one invoice should be submitted per service period. If multiple invoices are submitted for a service period or invoices are submitted for a time period not corresponding to the required single calendar monthly billing cycle, invoice(s) may be deleted for resubmittal and will not be given a priority review upon resubmittal.
TEACHING HOURS 1. A grade PPI-12 teacher's workday shall consist of not more than seven (7) hours and ten (10) minutes of formal responsibility. Hall duty may be included in the teacher's workday. Every effort will be made mutually by the Administration and the Association to deal with these duties in a most positive manner. The student day may be increased if necessary to meet the State time requirements for instructional hours. Within said time of formal responsibility, a teacher shall be entitled to the following:
(a) A duty free lunch period no less than twenty-five (25) minutes to a maximum of thirty-five (35) minutes.
(b) For a grade ECSE-5 grade teacher: a minimum of 250 minutes per week of time for preparation. Each preparation period to consist of a minimum of twenty-five (25) duty-free minutes. For a grade 6-12 teacher: a minimum of one preparation per day that shall be equivalent to a normal teaching period or an average of five normal teaching periods per week.
(c) Cafeteria duty may be included in the teacher's workday. Every effort will be made to obtain volunteers for this duty, which will be in lieu of a class period. If no volunteer is available who can be scheduled, the administration may assign a teacher to such duties. No teacher may be involuntarily assigned these duties for more than one consecutive year. Every effort will be made mutually by the Administration and the Association to deal with these duties in a most positive manner.
(d) Attendance at 6th grade camp shall be voluntary.
2. Before and/or after school, a grade ECSE-12 teacher shall be attending to his/her teaching duties in his/her building for up to thirty (30) minutes but not to exceed the workday of seven (7) hours and ten (10) minutes. At the beginning of each year, the administration at each level shall determine what portion of the above times will be used before and after school. Teacher input will be encouraged. It is expressly understood that an individual teacher's day may be adjusted to facilitate the administration of the individual building. Early leave may be granted at the discretion of the Administration.
3. The daily preparation period will first be used for such things as thorough preparations, conferences with parents, teachers, and administrators, I.E.P.T.'s, and special assistance to students.
4. Activities involving teachers beyond the scope of the formal teaching day shall be determined cooperatively between a faculty selected committee and the administration at that level. Teachers shall be given forty-eight (48) hour notice of such activities and shall be encouraged and expected by the Association to attend. Special teachers shall be encouraged to attend as their time and schedules allow.
5. In the event that it becomes necessary to determine a new building schedule, a committee will be formed, comprised of an equal number of administrators and teachers to examine alternative scheduling. A recommendation on the study will be presented to the superintendent. No recommendation will be made that would jeopardize accreditation.
6. A teacher’s building assignment shall be determined by where he/she is assigned for over half of his/her schedule. A teacher who has a split building assignment will have their workday schedule determined by the building administrators. A teacher who has a split building assignment will have a minimum of 30 minutes for travel. If the travel time encumbers the teacher’s preparation period or duty free lunch, or extends the teacher’s day beyond the contractual limits, then the teacher shall be paid for a minimum of thirty (30) minutes at the teacher’s per diem rate (unless this time is recouped through other minutes during the day).
Elementary School At the request of the Superintendent, elementary school teachers that teach all the student contact time on a daily basis will be paid for an additional hour at an hourly rate based upon their contractual daily rate of pay for a maximum of 180 days. Teachers will not be required to spend additional time beyond their regular day. All scheduling options must have been exhausted before an administrator will receive permission for this variance. The appeal process for this variance is defined in the Staffing Plan.
TEACHING HOURS AND TEACHING LOAD Section 1 Work Day For the applicable agreement period, the normal work day will be seven and one-quarter (7 ¼) hours including arrival time fifteen (15) minutes before and departure time (15) minutes after the students’ school day. The normal work day will include uninterrupted prep time. The Building Principal, as authorized by the Superintendent, upon request of a teacher or group of teachers, may waive the requirement to remain fifteen (15) minutes after the school day for a specific day or days. It is recognized; however, that the proper performance of their duties may, on occasion, require these persons to work longer than the normal work day, i.e. for conferences, faculty meetings, department meetings, etc. Therefore, “mandatory meetings will occur two times per month and be no longer than 90 minutes in length, inclusive of the additional 15 minutes beyond the scheduled student school day. A schedule of the meetings will be distributed by June 30th of the previous school year, but may be changed at the discretion of the Principal with 48 hours’ notice.” Teachers will also remain at school after the fifteen (15) minutes described above, during one (1) day each calendar week for such periods of time as is necessary to provide students extra help, and/or to meet with parents or guardians, concerning the progress of their children or wards. No teacher shall be required to work more than a normal seven and one- quarter (7 ¼) hour day, including fifteen (15) minutes before and (15) minutes after the students’ school day, which will include uninterrupted prep time; this provision does not apply to other contractually agreed upon time and meetings. Should state law require a longer instructional day, or more days, the teachers shall work the added time and the parties shall immediately commence impact bargaining on the issue. This article does not purport to cover the arrival and departure time of teachers involved in special assignments.
Section 2 Other Personnel Personnel other than classroom teachers will work at their assigned tasks for the length of the regular teachers' work day. The exact daily schedule will be worked out on an individual basis between the Administration and the employee with notification to the Association. Instructional Coaches are required to work an additional five (5) days at their per diem rate, beyond the work year for a total of 189 days. These days will be determined prior to the start of the new school year and at the discretion of the Superintendent and the Chief Academic Officer.
