Longer school days ahead for MCCSC students, teachers

Monroe County Community School Corporation teachers are bracing themselves for a longer school day next year after a new teacher contract was approved last Thursday. And students may be next.

The four-year contract between the Monroe County Education Association and the MCCSC will go into effect for the 2011-12 school year.

The contract mandates that teachers work seven-hour-and-45-minute days, adding an additional hour and a half to every elementary school teacher’s day and an hour and 15 minutes to secondary teachers’ days.
 
Interim Superintendent Tim Hyland said the longer teacher day provides flexibility to negotiate a longer student school day.

Chuck Rubright, an Indianapolis attorney and MCCSC’s chief negotiator, said parents and the public would need to be consulted before the student school day is addressed.

“This agreement does not restructure the school day, but it allows the board, through the administration, parents and the public, to go through a review and analysis to take a look at it,” Rubright said. “They can see if we can have a more efficient mechanism where we can help students achieve faster by allowing them more time on task.”

Currently, MCCSC high school students attend six hours of instruction each day, the minimum amount of time required by state law.

The MCCSC school day was shortened in the 1980s to save money, but recent administrators have expressed interest in adding additional curricular time back to the schedule.

But adding half an hour to the student school day would cost the corporation nearly $4 million annually in teacher salaries and benefits.

Thursday night, the MCCSC school board decided the cost increase was worth a longer school day.

Included in the approved contract is a one-time, one-percent teachers’ salary increase and a stipulation for the corporation to pay more toward teachers’ health insurance.

Rubright said the contract also delineates teacher responsibilities more specifically, which provides for a win-win situation between teachers and administrators regarding lengthening the workday.

“Both parties came to the table wanting to address the length of the day for different reasons,” Rubright said. “Which is sometimes advantageous because you can address a different goal for a different reason and sometimes both sides win.”