Formal Observation The instructional employee and the principal/administrator shall review using the mid-year Reflection Questions in the evaluation manual – Student Achievement Outcomes and make adjustments as needed to increase the likelihood of a positive goal outcome.
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.
Post-Observation Conference 1. The post- observation conference between the evaluator and teacher will be held no later than ten (10) days after the formal observation.
2. The purpose of the post-observation conference is to review the evaluator’s and teacher’s evidence related to the scoring criteria during the observation, and to discuss the teacher’s performance.
3. If there is an area of concern, the evaluator will identify specific concerns for the applicable criteria and provide possible solutions to remedy the concern in writing.
Pre-Observation Conference The pre-observation conference shall be held prior to the first formal observation. The teacher and evaluator will mutually agree when to conference. The purpose of the pre- observation conference is to discuss the employee’s goals, establish a date for the formal observation, and to discuss such matters as the professional activities to be observed, their content, objectives, strategies, and possible observable evidence to meet the scoring criteria.
Formal Observations At least two (2) formal observations per year are required for ancillary staff members in Track I, at least sixty (60) days apart. In the case of a first-year or second-year Track I ancillary staff employee, at least one (1) observation shall be made prior to the ancillary staff employee’s mid- year progress report. Annual evaluations shall include in-room observations of all aspects of the ancillary staff employee’s instructional practice. Observations shall be conducted by the ancillary staff employee’s supervisor. An observation shall be at least one (1) complete lesson, based on the lesson plans provided by the ancillary staff employee. Observations shall be scheduled at least five (5) work days in advance for a three-day window in which the observation would take place. If an observation needs to be rescheduled, the ancillary staff employee shall be notified of the date of the rescheduled observation no later than one (1) day prior to the end of the week in which the observation should have taken place, so as to accommodate lesson planning. A pre-observation conference shall be held to review the ancillary staff employee’s IDP and those areas which might be observed. All monitoring or observation of the work of the teacher shall be conducted openly and with the knowledge of the ancillary staff employee. The parties agree that during an observation every effort will be made to maintain the normal teaching-learning process. An observation shall include assessment of the ancillary staff employee’s skill and ability in the observed domains of the “Framework for Professional Practice”. A post-observation conference shall be held within five (5) work days of the observation unless the ancillary staff employee agrees in writing to extend the time to conduct the conference, not to exceed thirty (30) days. In the event the meeting does not occur as a result of administrator unavailability within thirty-five (35) days of the observation, negative comments or concerns shall be excluded from the observation. The ancillary staff employee teacher shall bring a completed Post-Observation Reflection Form to this conference, and the administrator shall bring the completed Classroom Observation Form. The ancillary staff employee teacher and the administrator shall each retain copies of both forms. As a result of this post-observation conference, identified areas of concern, together with suggested ways in which the ancillary staff employee is to improve, and identification of assistance to be given, may be addressed in the teacher’s IDP.
Informal Observation Additional evaluation of employees may occur through informal observations by the Employer. It may not be necessary to reduce such evaluations to writing, and a verbal discussion between the Employer and the employee concerning the informal observations may suffice. If a written evaluation is deemed necessary, Procedures C and D as outlined above shall be followed.
Teaching Load 11-1 The parties recognize that the number of students, the number of preparations, and the amount of planning time are related to student performance.
11-2 CLASS SIZE 11-2-1 The parties recognize that class size is related to economics and that reduction of class size is faced with fiscal constraints. The parties further recognize that it is not feasible at this time to set general numerical limitations upon class size because of physical space available, special programs, special student needs, attendance area variances, differences in scheduling systems, busing, and because of other variable causes affecting class size. Nevertheless, the parties shall make reasonable effort to maintain class size at reasonable, workable, and educationally effective levels in all situations.
11-3 TEACHER LOAD 11-3-1 Teaching load shall be defined as the number of separate class preparations that a teacher has per school day as delineated in the course description guide.
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).
Informal Observations A. An informal observation is an observation that is not required to be pre-scheduled.
B. An evaluator may conduct any number of informal observations.
C. Observations do not have to be in the classroom. For example, department or collegial meetings may be used for informal observations.
D. Informal observations may serve as an opportunity for formative feedback. If there are concerns regarding the teacher’s/educator’s level of performance based upon informal observations, the evaluator will document the concern and schedule a time to discuss with the employee.
Construction Observation The Consultant shall make periodic on-site observations of the Project in accordance with Exhibit A. The purpose of the on-site observations will be to observe the progress and quality of the construction work being carried on to determine if the work is proceeding in accordance with the Construction Documents. Unless otherwise stated in Exhibit A, the Consultant shall not be required to make exhaustive or continuous on-site observations to check the quality or quantity of the work.
