Prep Time
Clovis students deserve the best – and that takes time to prepare!
Prep time allows educators to review student progress and provide meaningful feedback to students and families and to work with other educators to ensure that our students are getting a well-rounded education. However, without a union contract, there are currently no guarantees regarding prep time.
It seems like common sense, but prep time allows educators to review student progress, provide meaningful feedback to students and families, and work with other educators to ensure that our students are getting a well-rounded education. ACE believes that protected individual prep time (across all grade levels and programs) is critical. However, without a union contract, there are currently no guarantees regarding prep time, and without those protections, more and more programs and initiatives can eat up precious time.
Research shows that providing sufficient prep and planning time is one of the highest priorities for elementary teachers throughout the country in improving learning outcomes. Among the districts surveyed in one study, districts provided between 21-49 minutes of planning time per day for elementary teachers.
What do we have in Clovis? Most elementary have one music class for 30 minutes a week, one early-release day every 4 weeks – approximately 90 minutes – for a total weekly average of 52.5 or 10.5 minutes per day.
We also know that those blocks of time are hardly guaranteed. That prep time is often taken for other reasons – staff meetings, supervising a student, meeting parents, meeting with admin, joining 504 or IEP meetings, or taking extra duties. When that happens, we have to use our own personal time on the weekends or after school, taking time away from our families and the time we need to rest and maintain our own well-being.
Classroom teachers in Elementary know that we need more prep and planning time. Why isn’t it happening? Last year, ACE asked district admin why there was so little, and the response was that ultimately the policy is “site-based.” Yet when we ask site admin, they report that the decisions are made by district admin. Certainly each site and each classroom is different – but ACE is asking: Why not provide PE teachers, Art teachers, and coverage during recess? Why not protect at least two early release Wednesdays for individual prep time and use the other two for PLCs?
Below are some examples of prep and planning time that our neighboring districts have guaranteed through their union contract. Each district and their educators make the decision together in the bargaining process based on their own local reality. Some have varying amounts of time based on classroom needs, some provide more protections and guarantees of individual prep time vs. team or staff meetings, and some provide compensation when the teacher needs to give up their prep time to cover another classroom or join a meeting.
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Why are Clovis Educators unionizing?
Clovis unified educators are unionizing to ensure a strong voice in decisions that impact our students, schools, and professions. By establishing the Association of Clovis Educators, we can negotiate a union contract that can ensure that Clovis educators have a meaningful say in decisions that impact our classrooms, improve pay and benefits, help cut down on turnover, address work/life balance and establish job security. Having a strong voice in decisions is critical when decisions are being made about the health and welfare of our students, colleagues and school communities. Together, we can ensure Clovis Unified prioritizes people over programs.