Sunday, October 10, 2010
Contract hours for teachers and working overtime
Most teachers have contracts for worktimes and workdays; however, the job is never done. Although teachers cannot be paid for every hour worke, there should be pay when it goes well beyond the school day to do the job. Do you think there should be extra pay when teachers stay to get the job done, attend a meeting, or any other required job duty??
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There are many teachers who put in lots of extra hours to "get the job done". However, there are others who do not put in any additional time. When I taught, I put extra time and money into my classroom and students. I work with a former coach and history teacher now. He claims that he never spent a dollar on his classroom and did not take his work home.
ReplyDeleteIf you started paying teachers for overtime, I think it may be a management nightmare. Administrators would have to ensure teachers were using their contract hours effectively and therefore "deserved" the extra compensation.
Working at the district level, we do earn comp time. Our schedules are more flexible than the teachers.
While I do think it is unfair that some teachers go above and beyond and do not receive compensation, I do not know of a legitimate way to pay these teachers for their extra work.
Any ideas on how it could work?
I am not sure how it is across the country but in NJ teachers are compensated for clubs they may run, coaching sports, and teaching professional development courses. All very sensible because they are separate and apart from the teaching position.
ReplyDeleteI would worry that by looking for "overtime" we risk reducing the perceived professionalism of educators. The concept of a salaried professional is that you spend whatever time is needed to complete the job for the agreed salary. As it is, we struggle for legitimacy in this country in the eyes of other educated professionals.
Brian...Good point that as salaried professionals, teachers should spend whatever time necessary to complete the job.
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