Re: TEACHER RIGHTS IN TEXAS- NOT SO FAST

Posted by johnv on 1/16/07

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Texas teacher rights are not as cut and dried as you make it
sound. The contract clause that states something like
this "and any duties as should be assigned" does away with a
lot of our rights. I know Texas teachers who tutor i80 days
a year on their conference period that if part of "Texas
Teacher Rights." Texas has no true Unions to protect our
rights. The teacher organizations only lobby legislature,
but have no authority like real unions.


On 12/21/06, why not lobby for similar rights in your state?
wrote:
> Duty-free lunch – Texas Education Code, Sec. 21.405
> By law, each classroom teacher and full-time librarian
> gets at least a 30-minute lunch period “free from all
> duties and responsibilities connected with the instruction
> and supervision of students.” According to a Texas
> Attorney General opinion, the term “duty” would include a
> directive that teachers remain on campus during lunch,
> because it would relate to student instruction or
> supervision. Districts cannot require teachers to stay on
> campus during their 30-minute lunch even if the campus
> is “closed” for students.
>
> The law provides exceptions—personnel shortages, extreme
> economic conditions or unavoidable/unforeseen
> circumstances—which give districts the right to require
> teachers to supervise lunches, but not more than one time
> per week.
>
> The rules adopted by the commissioner of education set the
> bar very high before a district can assign a teacher to
> lunch duty. Scheduling problems do not create unforeseen
> circumstances. They exist when an epidemic, illness, or
> natural or man-made disaster leaves no one available to do
> the duty. An extreme economic condition exists when hiring
> a person to supervise lunch would cause the district to
> raise taxes to the extent that the district might face a
> tax roll-back election. A personnel shortage exists only
> after all available nonteaching personnel—superintendent
> and business manager included—have been assigned to the
> duty and the district has diligently recruited community
> volunteers to help.
>
> Planning and preparation time – Texas Education Code, Sec.
> 21.404
> The law entitles every teacher to planning and preparation
> time, during which the district can require the teacher to
> engage in no activity other than parent-teacher
> conferences, evaluating student work, and planning.
> Teachers must have at least 450 minutes of planning time
> every two weeks in increments of not less than 45 minutes
> within the instructional day.
>
> Examples:
>
> A teacher could have five 90-minute conference periods
> within a two-week period, instead of a 45-minute
> conference period each day. A district can provide 50-
> minute blocks of planning time daily, and exceed the
> minimum requirement, but it could not provide 50 minutes
> one day and 40 minutes the next.
>
> A district cannot schedule a 7:45 a.m.-3:15 p.m.
> instructional day, and then give teachers 3:15 p.m.-4:00
> p.m. to plan after the students leave.
>
> Conference period cases often involve requirements for
> group planning or staff development during planning
> periods. According to the commissioner of education, if a
> district gives teachers no more than the statutory minimum
> planning time, the district cannot ask teachers to engage
> in group-planning during one of those planning periods.
>
> Example:
>
> A district that schedules 50-minute planning periods every
> day could ask teachers to plan as a group one day every
> two weeks, but the district could not take one planning
> period for group planning and another for staff
> development.
>
>
>

Posts on this thread, including this one

• TEACHER RIGHTS IN TEXAS, 12/21/06, by why not lobby for similar rights in your state?.
• Re: TEACHER RIGHTS IN TEXAS- NOT SO FAST, 1/16/07, by johnv.
• Re: TEACHER RIGHTS IN TEXAS- NOT SO FAST, 2/01/07, by dt.
• Re: TEACHER RIGHTS IN TEXAS- NOT SO FAST, 4/05/12, by RK Williams.