HOUSE BILL 1151 Empowers Educators:
Session Law 2006-153 AN ACT to
provide FOR INSTRUCTIONAL planning time and a duty‑free lunch period for
teachers.
A. Bill Summary –Amends GS 115C-105.27 to require school
improvement plans to include a plan to provide (a) a duty-free lunch period for every
teacher on a daily basis or as otherwise approved by the SIT plan, and
(b) a duty-free instructional
planning time for every teacher, with the goal of providing an average of at
least five hours of planning time per week. This bill also removes the SBE
authority to grant waivers of State law pertaining to duty-free periods for
classroom teachers when waivers are requested as part of the SIT
Plan.
B. The Bill - The General Assembly of North
Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 115C‑105.27 reads
as rewritten:
"§ 115C‑105.27. Development
and approval of school improvement plans.
(a)
In order to improve student performance, each school shall develop a school
improvement plan that takes into consideration the annual performance goal for
that school that is set by the State Board under G.S. 115C‑105.35. The
principal of each school, representatives of the assistant principals,
instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and teacher assistants
assigned to the school building, and parents of children enrolled in the school
shall constitute a school improvement team to develop a school improvement plan
to improve student performance. Representatives of the assistant principals,
instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and teacher assistants
shall be elected by their respective groups by secret ballot. Unless the local
board of education has adopted an election policy, parents shall be elected by
parents of children enrolled in the school in an election conducted by the
parent and teacher organization of the school or, if none exists, by the largest
organization of parents formed for this purpose. Parents serving on school
improvement teams shall reflect the racial and socioeconomic composition of the
students enrolled in that school and shall not be members of the building‑level
staff. Parental involvement is a critical component of school success and
positive student achievement; therefore, it is the intent of the General
Assembly that parents, along with teachers, have a substantial role in
developing school improvement plans. To this end, school improvement team
meetings shall be held at a convenient time to assure substantial parent
participation.
(b)
The strategies for improving student performance:
(1)
Shall include a plan for the use of staff development funds that may be made
available to the school by the local board of education to implement the school
improvement plan. The plan may provide that a portion of these funds is used for
mentor training and for release time and substitute teachers while mentors and
teachers mentored are meeting;
(1a) Shall,
if the school serves students in kindergarten or first grade, include a plan for
preparing students to read at grade level by the time they enter second grade.
The plan shall require kindergarten and first grade teachers to notify parents
or guardians when their child is not reading at grade level and is at risk of
not reading at grade level by the time the child enters second grade. The plan
may include the use of assessments to monitor students' progress in learning to
read, strategies for teachers and parents to implement that will help students
improve and expand their reading, and provide for the recognition of teachers
and strategies that appear to be effective at preparing students to read at
grade level. level;
(2)
Shall include a plan to address school safety and discipline concerns in
accordance with the safe school plan developed under Article 8C of this
Chapter;
(3)
May include a decision to use State funds in accordance with
G.S. 115C‑105.25;
(4)
Shall include a plan that specifies the effective instructional practices and
methods to be used to improve the academic performance of students identified as
at risk of academic failure or at risk of dropping out of
school;
(5)
May include requests for waivers of State laws, rules, or policies for that
school. A request for a waiver shall meet the requirements of
G.S. 115C‑105.26. 115C‑105.26;
(6)
Shall include a plan to provide a duty‑free lunch period for every teacher on
a daily basis or as otherwise approved by the school improvement team;
and
(7)
Shall include a plan to provide duty‑free instructional planning time for
every teacher under G.S. 115C‑301.1, with the goal of providing an average
of at least five hours of planning time per week.
(c)
Support among affected
staff members is essential to successful implementation of a school improvement
plan to address improved student performance at that school. The principal of
the school shall present the proposed school improvement plan to all of the
principals, assistant principals, instructional personnel, instructional support
personnel, and teacher assistants assigned to the school building for their
review and vote. The vote shall be by secret ballot. The principal shall submit
the school improvement plan to the local board of education only if the proposed
school improvement plan has the approval of a majority of the staff who voted on
the plan.
(d)
The local board of education shall accept or reject the school improvement plan.
The local board shall not make any substantive changes in any school improvement
plan that it accepts. If the local board rejects a school improvement plan, the
local board shall state with specificity its reasons for rejecting the plan; the
school improvement team may then prepare another plan, present it to the
principals, assistant principals, instructional personnel, instructional support
personnel, and teacher assistants assigned to the school building for a vote,
and submit it to the local board to accept or reject. If no school improvement
plan is accepted for a school within 60 days after its initial submission to the
local board, the school or the local board may ask to use the process to resolve
disagreements recommended in the guidelines developed by the State Board under
G.S. 115C‑105.20(b)(5). If this request is made, both the school and local
board shall participate in the process to resolve disagreements. If there is no
request to use that process, then the local board may develop a school
improvement plan for the school. The General Assembly urges the local board to
utilize the school's proposed school improvement plan to the maximum extent
possible when developing such a plan.
(e)
A school improvement plan shall remain in effect for no more than three years;
however, the school improvement team may amend the plan as often as is necessary
or appropriate. If, at any time, any part of a school improvement plan becomes
unlawful or the local board finds that a school improvement plan is impeding
student performance at a school, the local board may vacate the relevant portion
of the plan and may direct the school to revise that portion. The procedures set
out in this subsection shall apply to amendments and revisions to school
improvement plans."
SECTION 2. G.S. 115C‑105.26(b) reads as
rewritten:
"(b)
When requested as part of a school improvement plan, the State Board of
Education may grant waivers of:
(1)
State laws pertaining to class size, teacher certification, and the duty‑free
period for classroom teachers under G.S. 115C‑301.1; size and
teacher certification; and
(2)
State rules and policies, except those pertaining to public school State salary
schedules and employee benefits for school employees, the instructional program
that must be offered under the Basic Education Program, the system of employment
for public school teachers and administrators set out in G.S. 115C‑287.1
and G.S. 115C‑325, health and safety codes, compulsory attendance, the
minimum lengths of the school day and year, and the Uniform Education Reporting
System."
SECTION 3. G.S. 115C‑301.1 reads as
rewritten:
"§ 115C‑301.1. Duty‑free
instructional planning time. period.
All full‑time assigned classroom
teachers shall be provided a daily duty‑free instructional
planning time period during regular student contact hours. The
duty‑free instructional planning time period shall be
provided to the maximum extent that (i) the safety and proper supervision of
children may allow during regular student contact hours and (ii) insofar as
funds are provided for this purpose by the General Assembly. If the safety and
supervision of children does not allow a daily duty‑free
instructional planning time period during regular student contact
hours for a given teacher, the funds provided by the General Assembly for the
duty‑free instructional planning time period for that
teacher shall revert to the general fund. Principals shall not unfairly burden a
given teacher by making that teacher give up his or her duty‑free
instructional planning time period on an ongoing, regular
basis without the consent of the teacher."
SECTION 4. This act becomes effective
In the General Assembly read three
times and ratified this the 13th day of July,
2006.
C. Items
or questions to consider as School Improvement Teams implement duty-free
instructional time:
We
know time is money and looking at State financial flexibility demands
consideration of time and its scheduling constraints as opportunities for
empowerment of the SIT. School
leaders must determine whether their students' needs are best addressed through
full-time positions, part-time positions, job-sharing positions and
multifunctional or dedicated positions. Your team must consider what will work
best for the students and staff. School leaders need to look at how scheduling
will affect opportunities for remediation and at-risk services - whether those
services occur in conjunction with interim testing results, in before- and
after-school programs, in Saturday programs, in intercession programs for
year-round schools, or some other time. In making these important decisions the
team must take into consideration:
1.
State
class size requirements.
2.
Teacher
daily load.
3.
Planning
Time for teachers.
4.
School
calendar mandates.
5.
Duty-free
periods for teachers.
6.
The
new law does mandate instructional planning time for all teachers – the amount
of time is not specified – the SIT must work together with all staff to create
the best plan for student success and teaching and learning conditions.
7.
The
planning time and duty free period could be at the same time for some
educators.
8.
The
SIT has been empowered by their peers – the SIT is elected by the school staff
(G.S 115C-105.27(a).) – this means each member of the team should represent the
school community.
9.
As
the SIT works on the schedule remember:
a.
safety
and supervision of students is a must
b.
the
funding sources and how the funds can be used
c.
fair
distribution of planning time so not one educator is over burdened by not having
adequate time
How
funding is allocated to schools (based on ADM and class size)
|
|
Category |
Basis of Allotment
(Funding Factors are
rounded.) | |
|
|
Classroom
Teachers |
|
|
|
|
Grades Kindergarten -3 |
|
1 per 18 in ADM. (LEA Class Size Avg. is
21) |
|
|
Grades 4 - 6 |
|
1 per 22 in ADM. (LEA Class Size Avg. is
26) |
|
|
Grades 7 - 8 |
|
1 per 21 in ADM. (LEA Class Size Avg. is
26) |
|
|
Grade 9 |
|
1 per 24.5 in ADM. (LEA Class Size Avg. is
26) |
|
|
Grades 10 - 12 |
|
1 per 26.64 in ADM. (LEA Class Size Avg. is
29) |
|
|
Math/Science/Computer Teachers |
|
1 per county or based on sub
agreements. |
|
Teacher
Assistants |
|
$944.05 per K-3
ADM. | |
|
Instructional
Support |
|
1 per 200.10 in
ADM. | |
D.
Resources, limited
best practices, and examples of how elementary schools provide planning time can
be found below based on the school year 2004-05. Much of this information was provided to
legislators by NCAE as staff has worked on the Planning Time Bill. We appreciate the following LEAs who
provided examples: Catawba,
Ř
Our regular education teachers are
given planning during the time their classes go to music, PE, counseling, and
library. Sometimes teachers use their planning time to provide extra
assistance for struggling students.
Ř
We block the daily PE up against
either, art, music, Spanish (2 days) a
week.
Ř
We
have five rotations (PE, art, music, media, and computer). Since we have
more than 5 classes at each grade level, we divide each grade level in half and
schedule their rotations back-to-back. For instance, half of the second
grade will have rotations from
Ř
At our
school we schedule our enrichment classes at the same time each day for a grade
level. The BEP/enrichment teachers also get one planning time a day - It's
tough to work out the schedule for BEP teachers but we allow some flexibility at
the beginning of the year to adjust. There is a 10 minute break between each
class for the BEP teachers. Using our SIT as the “conductor” with our
Administration has been successful.
Ř
At
present we have 4 days covered. For 2004-05, teachers have specials (art, music,
PE) three days per week. On Friday mornings, teachers will plan an
activity that Teacher Assistants can carry out while they meet for team planning
with me and our curriculum facilitator for an hour. We have just enough
assistants to cover two grade levels per hour. This is a fourth day. The
fifth day’s planning is teacher selected. They may schedule a lesson with
our media specialist, or it may be heir guidance lesson day (every two weeks),
they may schedule computer lab time (a technology assistant if FT in the lab). All teachers have a 30-minute
duty-free lunch. Teacher assistants cover the cafeteria.
Ř
Wayne
Elementary in Rutherford,
each grade level has 1 hour built
into a school day once a week for
planning. For example, on Mondays
the 5th grade teachers plan from
The
following examples planning time or duty
free periods are from secondary schools:
Ř
A
Ř
Assigned
Departments are used to cover various areas of the building for the first and
last 10 minutes of lunch.
Administrators and the SRO cover the cafeteria daily and the SRO monitors
the parking lots. Department chairs
worked with their team so teachers cover assigned areas designated by the
Administration. The duty is for a
week at the time on a rotating schedule.
Ř
There
are retired educators and retired military that assist with monitoring school
areas along with staff on a rotating schedule.
E. The Professional Teaching Standards
Commission
conducted a brief survey in 2005 and found the following examples:
|
LEA/School
System; School Name |
Planning
time per week |
Implementation | ||
|
Ashe
Westwood ES |
5
hours per week |
40minutesutes
during the day and 20 minutes after students
leave | ||
|
Avery
Banner Elk ES |
60
minutes per day |
P.E.
3 days per wk; 35 minutes Art, Music, Media, Drama; 1 day 40
minutes | ||
|
Bertie
West Bertie ES |
250
minutes per week |
grade
level planning state funded | ||
|
Burke
Ray Childers ES |
4
hours per week |
| ||
|
Burke
Valdese ES |
5
hrs per week |
Specials
45 minutes; Music, P.E., etc.; Extra planning end of
day | ||
|
|
5
hours; 4 - 45 minute blocks 30 minute duty free
lunch |
Art,
Special Classes, block of time after
school | ||
|
|
40
minutes/day |
Music,
P.E. | ||
|
Catawba
|
5
hours per week |
| ||