The regular school day for early childhood and elementary school teachers shall not exceed seven hours with a continuous lunch period of forty-five minutes with no work responsibilities. Teachers’ lunch shall not be scheduled before the first scheduled student lunch period and shall not be scheduled after the last scheduled student lunch period. Each teacher’s day shall be comprised of no more than 296 minutes of instruction, 15 minutes of non-classroom supervision and 60 minutes of continuous duty-free preparation. Four days each week the teacher’s preparation time shall be self-directed; one day each week this period shall be principal-directed.

The BOARD and the UNION shall develop up to five models for early childhood and elementary school schedules. The models shall be disseminated to the schools by March 1, 2013. The principal, in conjunction with the Professional Problems Committee, shall select two of the models, and the UNION’s teacher members shall vote for one of the two and determine the schedule through a secret ballot majority vote.

The day shall normally begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.; however, the principal or Chief Executive Officer if appropriate may change the beginning and ending times after making his or her best effort to achieve the affirmative concurrence of the majority of classroom teachers.

A duty schedule for all teachers, teacher assistants, school assistants, instructor assistants and interpreter assistants shall be posted in each early childhood center or elementary school within one week of the start of each semester. Any schedule change shall be preceded by a twenty-four-hour notification to the appropriate staff.

Professional preparation periods shall be scheduled from the first instructional day of the school year through the last instructional day of the school year.

Library, physical education and arts education programs in all elementary schools where certificated physical education teachers, or teacher-librarians or arts teachers have been assigned shall begin on the first day of instruction and continue through the last instructional day.

In those unusual circumstances where a twenty-minute recess period for the students is not scheduled or is canceled or shortened, a procedure shall be developed at each school to relieve teachers for a period of twenty minutes or for the equivalent number of minutes that recess was shortened or eliminated.

The principal, in conjunction with the Professional Problems Committee, shall review issues related to the implementation of recess, including, but not limited to, the safety and supervision of students, play equipment and staffing. The Professional Problems Committee shall submit recommendations directly to the principal with copies of the recommendations submitted simultaneously to the Local School Council and the Chief Executive Officer.

Upon reasonable notification to the principal in the case of late arrival or early departure to or from school for good cause in an emergency situation only, a bargaining unit employee assigned to a school present more than one-fourth and less than three-fourths of the working day is considered as having worked one half day, and a bargaining unit employee assigned to a school present three-fourths or more of the regular working day is considered as having worked a full day.

In the spring semester of every school year, the PPLC, or in its absence the PPC, shall develop and formally present recommendations to the principal and the local school council on professional development activities for the school staff for the subsequent school year. The principal shall determine professional development activities for the subsequent school year after hearing the recommendations of and in consultation with the Professional Personnel Leadership Committee, or in its absence the PPC.

If a school is organized on a departmental basis, said departmental classes shall begin on or before the second Wednesday following the opening of the school year unless precluded by the unavailability of teachers with the required subject skills.

Teachers assigned to supervise students during their preparation periods shall be provided with an equal amount of time for preparation periods at another time agreed to between the teachers and the principal.

In order to ensure that early childhood and kindergarten students who attend the afternoon session receive the full instructional time allocation on days when one half day in-service meetings are scheduled, other available staff, in addition to the early childhood and kindergarten teacher, already at each local school and any available space shall be utilized by the principal to meet the instructional needs of said students.

The principal shall receive pertinent information from the early childhood and kindergarten teacher and shall have the counsel of the elementary school counselor in the placement of students completing preschool or kindergarten.

A kindergarten teacher who spends the morning session at one building and the afternoon session at another building shall be given a daily uninterrupted lunch period of forty-five minutes with no work responsibilities exclusive of travel time.

At the beginning of each semester, the early childhood and kindergarten teachers shall be scheduled a sufficient amount of non-teaching time, to the extent that the use of teacher assistants employed at the school will permit, to complete registration, including cumulative record cards, registration cards, emergency information cards and transfer records for early childhood and kindergarten students.

All teachers in the early childhood programs should have the same student matriculation dates for entrance and pre-screening procedures.

The Professional Personnel Leadership Committee shall make written recommendations regarding school safety to the principal and Local School Council

The BOARD and the UNION shall consult on elementary schedules for schools that maintain the current student instructional minutes at 360 while providing elementary teachers preparation time at the beginning of the school day.

No later than January 1, 2017, the parties shall agree on model schedules that will allow full-time elementary teachers a minimum of 15 minutes of preparation at the beginning of the school day for a minimum of 71 student attendance days (based on a 178 student attendance day school year; two per week).

Schools shall adopt a schedule in accordance with Articles 4-2 and 5-2. School must implement their first such schedule in SY2017-18 but the UNION and the BOARD shall meet and confer to determine whether some or all schools will implement by the start of the second semester in SY2016-17.

The preparation period will be self-directed.