ARTICLE IX

Duties and Activities

1. The school year shall consist of one hundred ninety (190) days. Any orientation and in-service days are to be included within these one hundred ninety (190) days. The System reserves the right to schedule all one hundred ninety (190) days.

Effective with the 2013-2014 school year, the System shall be permitted to schedule one (1) teacher day at the local school on the Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday prior to Labor Day of each contract year. This day shall be included in the one hundred ninety (190) days.

2. Except in emergency situations, the school day shall not exceed seven (7) hours. Every teacher shall be present from the start of the school day until the end of the teacher’s school day.

Consideration should be given in time allocated for meetings after school in relation to Middle States, changes in scheduling and restructuring/merger.

2a. Teachers must be available for consultation with parents and/or pupils on a reasonable basis outside of class hours, but within the school day.

When a parent or pupil requests a meeting with a teacher, the teacher must make himself/herself available to meet with the parent or pupil within three (3) school days of the request. When a parent communicates with a teacher who is not immediately available, the teacher shall make every effort to return the parent’s communication within two (2) school days of receipt of the parent’s communication.

3. Teachers are required to post all assessment grades including quarter/semester grades, assignments with due dates, comments, if applicable, and to use necessary grading formulas of the on-line course management program(s) that is/are provided by the System.

Teachers are required to update the on-line course management information for assessments and assignments at least once every seven (7) days. The dates for transmission of quarter/semester grades are designated on the monthly calendar. All teachers are encouraged to use the additional functions of the current on-line course management program.

The System reserves the right to implement changes/improvements to any course management programs. Training will be provided for any kind of significant upgrades or if a new program is introduced.

4. On days when school is not held to allow attendance at professional meetings, teachers are required to attend these meetings. The System shall provide reasonable reimbursement for parking and lunch on these days.

A teacher who is absent or uses a personal day on an in-service day may have a letter placed in his/her personnel file.

4a. Local and regional in-service days shall be held within the school day. Teachers must be present from the start of the in-service to the end of the in-service. When conducted off-site, they shall be held at a reasonable distance from the school.

4b. Teachers are required to attend diocesan/school in-service programs within the school week, within the normal school day. Teachers must be able to return to their individual schools within one (1) hour after the close of their normal school day.

If religious activities are part of in-service days, teachers are required to attend such activities.

5. The System will continue its policy of exploring and developing innovative and forward-looking educational programs, particularly in the area of proper utilization of in-service programs.

5a. In-service days offer teachers excellent opportunities for professional growth, twenty-first century curriculum improvement, topics that address the particular needs of the individual schools and workshops to improve educational skills and techniques.

5b. There shall be up to five (5) professional development days during the school year.

5c. If religious activities are part of any in-service day, teachers are required by the System to attend such activities.

6. The System recognizes the importance of days of recollection and requires teachers to attend such days.

A teacher who is absent or uses a personal day on a day of recollection may have a letter placed in his/her personnel file.

7. No teacher shall be required to attend more than seven (7) professional meetings a year outside the school day. Graduation exercises are to be included in these seven (7) meetings.

7a. Faculty meetings shall not exceed ten (10) per year and shall not extend more than one (1) hour beyond the length of the normal school day.

An agenda and, if possible, printed material shall be distributed at least twenty- four (24) hours prior to the meeting.

If twenty-five percent (25%) of the faculty members indicate to the Principal in writing by their signatures their desire to place a specific topic on the agenda, the topic shall be included on the agenda of the next regularly scheduled faculty meeting, provided notice is given forty-eight (48) hours prior to the meeting. This request shall not be unreasonably denied.

These professional and faculty meetings should be published in accordance with the provisions of Section 7 of this Article.

7b. Teachers shall not be required to attend departmental meetings more than ten (10) times during the school year and such attendance shall not be required for more than one (1) hour beyond the length of the normal school day except where modified at the discretion of the department members.

An agenda and, if possible, printed material shall be distributed at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the meeting.

If twenty-five percent (25%) of the department members indicate to the department head in writing by their signatures their desire to place a specific topic on the agenda, the topic shall be included on the agenda of the next regularly scheduled department meeting, provided notice is given forty-eight (48) hours prior to the meeting. This request shall not be unreasonably denied.

7c. A total of four (4) faculty or department meetings per academic year may extend one and one-half (1 ½) hours beyond the length of the normal school day if it includes Act 48 hours. These professional and faculty meetings should be published in accordance with the provisions of Section 7 of this Article.

8. The Superintendent for Secondary Schools is solely responsible for formulating and promulgating the yearly calendar that is to be followed in each school. A yearly calendar approved by the System for each school shall be published in September indicating System holidays, school events and meetings, especially faculty meetings, parent-teacher meetings, assessment dates and closing dates for marks. Changes to the yearly calendar and, when known, orientation and in-service days, will be published on the first day of each month.

9. When placement examinations, college boards, merit scholarship test, etc. are administered at a school, the teaching staff at that school shall be given the first opportunity to volunteer as proctors and receive the usual remuneration. They shall be chosen according to school seniority. On successive examinations, those teachers who have not yet served as proctors will be given the first opportunity according to school seniority.

10. The total teaching and service periods shall not exceed six (6) a day or thirty (30) a week plus a homeroom as defined in Section 9f. Substitutions as defined in Section 9c2 are excluded from the foregoing. The total number of teaching periods shall not exceed five (5) per day or to allow for flexibility in scheduling shall not exceed twenty-five (25) per week. Teachers who are rostered for more than twenty-five (25) teaching periods per week should have a comparable reduction in the number of service periods assigned.

Rosters for the Information Media Specialist (Librarian), Director of Guidance and full-time counselor(s) shall have their preparation, service and lunch periods defined. Any change will be by mutual agreement between the Information Media Specialist (Librarian), Director of Guidance or full-time counselor(s) and the school.

10a. The teaching period is one in which the teacher is actively involved in the act of teaching, either as an individual or as a member of a teaching team. This shall usually be a minimum of a forty-five (45) minute period. To allow flexibility in scheduling, the weekly total of teaching and service periods shall not exceed 1,410 minutes exclusive of homeroom and substitutions as defined in 10c3 and 10c7.

10a1. Good teaching requires planning and preparation. Teachers shall be in-serviced in the instructional planning framework, Understanding by Design, during the first semester of the 2011-2012 school year. Teachers shall be encouraged to submit and utilize unit plans/updates using the Understanding by Design template during the second semester of the 2011-2012 school year.

Effective with the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, all teachers shall be required to submit and utilize unit plans/updates using the Understanding by Design framework. The unit plans/updates shall be submitted to the Principal and the department head at the beginning of each unit or on no less than a monthly basis.

10b. A service period is one in which the teacher is assigned any professional duties other than teaching. After two (2) consecutive years of cafeteria duty, a teacher shall not be involuntarily assigned to a third year except for serious and compelling reasons. It is the policy of the System to provide adequate supervision of study halls and cafeteria ensuring that a reasonable number of staff are assigned with particular attention to periods where classes are added. The number of students per teacher in a study period or cafeteria are, under usual circumstances:

10b1. A service period scheduled outside the rostered school day shall be staffed on a voluntary basis. If a service period scheduled outside the rostered school day is less than thirty (30) minutes, it will not satisfy the rostered service period assignment under Section 10b above.

10c. Substitutions shall first be assigned to teachers who have been rostered to serve as substitutes during a specific period which is to be their service period. If a department head teaches four (4) classes, that department head will have one (1) of his/her department duty periods designated as a possible substitution period. The department head shall be given a substitution on his/her other department period only in case of an emergency. If a department head teaches five (5) classes, that department head will only receive a substitution on his/her department period in case of an emergency. Substitutes shall be assigned in the following sequence:

1. Rostered Substitutes
2. Volunteer Substitutes
3. Non-teaching Assistants
4. Other Service Periods and Offices
5. Department heads according to the following:

   First to substitute: department heads with one (1) to three (3) members

   Second to substitute: department heads with four (4) to seven (7) members

   Third to substitute: department heads with eight (8) or more members.

6. Preparation Periods

10c1. The System will work with the individual schools to identify a pool of volunteers to serve as substitutes.

10c2. The System will work with the individual schools to identify non-teaching assistants available to be hired on a part-time basis. These non-teaching assistants will supplement faculty substitutes and the pool of volunteers.

The number of non-teaching assistants shall be determined by the System.

Any individual employed under this Section shall not be covered by any other terms or provisions of this Agreement.

10c3. If no teachers are available who have been rostered for substitutions during that period, and if there are no available volunteers or non-teaching assistants, then substitutes shall be drawn from all service periods except where this will adversely affect the efficient operation of the school. Department heads should be used as substitutes so that an undue burden is not placed on other members of the faculty.

10c4. If there are no personnel available under Sections 10c and 10c3 above, then only in that event may a teacher be assigned a substitution from other than a service period.

10c5. The rostered lunch period may not be used as a substitution period.

10c6. There shall be an equitable distribution of substitutions under this Section, and substitutions shall be distributed without regard to state of life.

10c7. Under the circumstances of Section 10c4 above, the teacher may be assigned up to eight (8) substitutions per year. Acceptance of substitutions in this circumstance beyond this number shall be subject to the procedures of Article XVI, Sections 1 and 1a.

10c8. Teachers will be given an additional sick day for every four (4) substitutions assigned in accordance with Section 10c4 above.

10d. Records of all substitutions shall be available to the Senior Delegate upon proper notice to the appropriate Assistant Principal.

10e. The preparation period is one during which the teacher is not assigned to a programmed responsibility. The preparation period should be utilized for professional responsibilities. The teacher may use this time for instructional preparation, evaluating students’ work, planning, pre and post conferences, and parent contact. Teachers shall be rostered to at least one (1) such period per day, subject to the provisions of Article IV, Section 6. The teacher is required to be on site for this period unless it is the last period of the school day and the teacher is not assigned to a programmed responsibility.

10f. The normal homeroom period shall not exceed twenty-two (22) minutes. The total homeroom time per week, however distributed, is not to exceed one hundred forty (140) minutes excluding religious services. Exceptions to the total time restrictions shall be made only for necessary and compelling reasons. These shall, where possible, be scheduled in such a way as not to cancel a regular teaching period. Homerooms shall be assigned on an equitable and rotating basis, except for necessary and compelling reasons.

If an individual school has Channel One or a similar program scheduled during homeroom, the total homeroom time per week is not to exceed one hundred forty- five (145) minutes excluding religious services. If Channel One or a similar program is discontinued, the local school will determine whether it is necessary to continue with the additional five (5) minutes of homeroom time per week.

11. There shall be a rostered duty-free lunch period of the same length as the teaching period, which is normally forty-five (45) minutes.

12. Teachers who agree to formulate and evaluate student review programs for any course to remove a failure in that course shall be compensated for this work at the rate of $50.00 per student to a maximum of $250.00.

13. All teachers are required to comply with Pennsylvania law and Archdiocesan policies with regard to the Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries and to undergo a (i) Pennsylvania State Police Request for Criminal Record Check and (ii) a Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Child Abuse History Clearance.

All teachers residing outside Pennsylvania or who have moved from outside Pennsylvania within two (2) years prior to the commencement of work are also required to undergo an F.B.I. fingerprint check.

13a. For teachers who have previously provided the foregoing background checks, new background checks as required above must be provided every five (5) years from the date of the last background checks.

13b. For teachers who have had a break in service for a year or more, new background checks as required above must be provided.

13c. The cost of the background checks shall be borne by the System for all teachers in the System. The teacher shall be required to complete and sign any forms necessary to complete these background checks.

13d. Teachers who fail to comply with these background check requirements shall be terminated immediately.

13e. Teachers whose reports state (i) a report of conviction for an offense identified in 24 P.S. § 1-111(e) (1)-(3), as amended; or (ii) a founded or indicated report of child abuse on the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Child Abuse History Clearance Statement shall be terminated immediately.

14. Any deviation not specifically provided for in this Article shall be made subject to mutual agreement by the System and/or its designees and the Association and/or its designee.