Reply to Ugh....time to wake my 8th grader up

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The middle school I teach at went from 8 to 7:30.  Buses began dropping kids off in our parking lot at 7 am this morning.  Staff was asked to be in the building by 6:45 so as not to be blocking buses as they entered.

It's going to be a long year.

The worst part for teachers (imo) is that after school buses still don't come until 4:30, so now staff is expected to stay after to tutor kids from 2:15-4:30 once a week.  That is a LONG (unpaid) period of tutoring for kids who have likely been up since 5:30.[/quote]

As a Fairfax County taxpayer I have to ask, why the hell is this unpaid?  That is some bullshit that has to stop.  [/quote]

First - the principal cannot require that you show up at 645 unless he's willing to let you walk out the door at 215 which is unlikely since that's right when the kids are dismissed. Your contract hours are for 7.5/day with the occasional after school faculty meeting. A 645 arrival time would be a contract violation. You can voluntarily come in that early (a ton of teachers do) but that's about it.

Second - you're not expected to stay until 430. The general expectation at a couple of FCPS schools I taught at was one hour a week of unpaid time after school. If you're staying over two hours unpaid, you're a sucker. Put in one hour, once a week and go home. [/quote]

Correct.  He is not requiring us to be there at 6:45.  Our contract hours are 7:10-2:40.  HOWEVER...the parking lot is tiny, and the buses begin arriving at 7.  If you get there at 7, you will wait 10+ minutes to park your car.  The only way to actually be in the building by 7:10 is to get into the building before 7 am.

For the second point though, yes, we are expected to stay until 4:30.  It's a low income school, where 200-300 kids stay after school any given late bus day because they really have nowhere better to go.  If the teachers left at 3:15 as you are suggesting, there would be 100s of completely unsupervised 13 year olds doing who knows what in the building.  Or in the vicinity of the building.  It is not possible for the after school coordinator to monitor that many kids on their own, so the only way it's possible is if the staff all take turns staying throughout the week.  Thankfully I work at a school where the staff really and truly care about what these kids are involved in and staff work hard to give the kids good options.  My guess is it will become an hour of academic help followed by an hour of some sort of "club" each teacher runs.  Knitting club, soccer club, video game club, whatever.

It worked great for the past few years where it was 90 minutes (3-4:30) and the kids didn't have to wake up until 7, but now that they're up before 6 to catch buses and not leaving until 4:30...they're going to be at school for 9 hours, and away from their houses for at least 10.  Most of these kids don't have electives because they're double blocked in math and reading remediation.  That makes for some very long days for our struggling kiddos.

I hate that all the decisions are made around buses :([/quote]

I agree with the PP. it's a 7.5 hour day. Actually, even an extra hour of required time once a week seems like a lot. If members of the staff want to volunteer their time, then that's great. Most of us are in the building for longer, but it's shouldn't be a requirement. Leaving on time doesn't mean you don't care. [/quote]

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