ARTICLE 11 DUTY FREE AND PREPARATION PERIODS

Johnston School Department

The Committee and the Federation agree that the primary responsibility of teachers is to teach and that their energies should, to the extent possible, be utilized to this end.

Section 1. Senior High School

1.1 Teachers at the Senior High School shall be allotted one (1) preparation period per day. Teachers shall be free to leave the building upon notifying the principal or designee during preparation periods.

1.2 In addition, the principal in the Senior High School shall provide common planning time a minimum of once per seven (7) day cycle in accordance with the current high school schedule, including but not limited to, in-service related to literacy, curriculum, assessments, rubrics and reviewing student work. Common planning time shall occur during teachers' office assignment period.

Section 2. Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School

2.1 Teachers at the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School shall be allotted one (1) preparation period per day. Teachers shall be free to leave the building upon notifying the principal or designee during preparation periods.

2.2. In addition, the principal at the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School shall provide teachers with two (2) common planning times per week during the student day. The common planning time shall be used by interdisciplinary and content-specific teams of teachers, administrators, and other education professionals for substantive planning of instruction, looking at student work, addressing student needs (especially those with the greatest needs) and providing opportunities for group professional development.

2.3 In no case shall a teacher be assigned to a class coverage/duty or training during his/her scheduled common planning period.

Section 3. Elementary

3.1 Each elementary teacher will be scheduled for two (2) duty-free recess periods (fifteen minutes each), one of which may be appended to the thirty (30) minute duty-free lunch period each school day. All other elementary itinerant teachers shall be entitled to a duty-free lunch and thirty (30) minutes of additional duty-free time during each school day, in lieu of the two (2) fifteen (15) minute recess periods. Teachers, upon notifying the principal's office, shall be free to leave the building during their lunch period and/or preparation period.

3.2 No bus duty, lunch duty and/or recess duty shall be required of any teacher.

3.3 Elementary teachers will have four (4) preparation periods of forty-five (45) minutes each per week, excluding duty-free lunch and recess periods. Further, teachers shall be free to leave the building during their preparation period and/or lunch period upon notification to the office. The principal shall attempt to schedule no more than one (1) preparation period per day. In no case shall a teacher have two (2) preparation periods in one (1) day for two (2) consecutive years.

3.4 Whenever a special subject (itinerant) teacher is scheduled to teach a class, the regular classroom teacher shall not be required to remain in the class, but shall use such time as preparation time.

3.5 Whenever an itinerant teacher does not teach a scheduled class, the classroom teacher will receive $18.27 in lieu of preparation time.

3.6 Travel time shall not be included in duty-free time, duty-free lunch and preparation periods.

3.7 In the event that there is a delayed opening of schools, all recesses will be held in order for all faculty to have equitable, duty-free recesses.