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Professional Agreement Between The Lincoln Public Schools and The Lincoln Education Association
2006 - 2008

ARTICLE V
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

5-1 Paychecks

Certificated employees shall be paid in twelve (12) equal installments, which shall be gross salary divided equally except for adjustments in the salary schedule, horizontal advancement, changes in assignments or other events that may effect salary which may occur during the contract period. Employees shall have the option of receiving their remaining salary due for the contract year, with appropriate and necessary deductions, on the June payday. Application must be made to the District payroll office by the last teacher workday.

a. Advancement of Pay - New employees starting in August may elect an early payment up to $500, but not to exceed the amount earned. Application must be made before September 1. The payment shall be paid by the 15th of September, if the certificated employee’s teaching certificate is on file in the Human Resources Office, with the remainder of the contracted salary divided into installments as set forth in 5-1.

b. Pay dates will be in accordance with the schedule developed by the district. Pay dates for the time covered by this contract are contained in Appendix C.

5-2 Outside Employment

Employees are not required to notify the school district of outside employment, unless the teacher is also employed by another Nebraska school district.

5-3 Length of Contract

The certificated employee contract will be 190 days in 2006-2007 and 191 days in 2007-2008. Work activities shall include teaching or preparing to teach, attending building or district wide in-service activities, staff meetings and conferencing with parents. The certificated staff workday shall be seven and one-half (7.5) hours per day. Thirty (30) minutes of this time shall be duty free lunch.

5-4 Certificated Staff Duty Days

The certificated employee contract will be 190 days in 2006-2007 and 191 days in 2007-2008. For the contract year, eleven (11) days will be designated as staff duty days. The eleven (11) staff duty days shall be divided as follows:

Five (5) days are designated as professional duty. During professional duty days, certificated employees will be on duty working in buildings or engaged in professional duties at their discretion. They will be placed as follows in the calendar: two (2) full days and one (1) half day prior to the first student day of the year; one (1) full day during the semester break; one (1) full day following the last student day of the year; one (1) half day scheduled according to principal discretion.

Four (4) days are designated as building and/or district professional development.

During the 2006-2007 school year and the 2007-2008 school year, in lieu of attending one staff development day, employees are required to attend seven hours of district staff development activities, designated as contractual professional development, outside of the regular school calendar or outside of the regular school day. For the 2006-2007 school year, contractual professional development will be scheduled throughout the summer of 2006 and throughout the 2006-2007 school year. For the 2007-08 school year, contractual professional development will be scheduled throughout the summer of 2007 and throughout the 2007-2008 school year. For the 2006-2007 school year, employees who do not attend seven hours of contractual professional development outside of the regular school calendar or outside of the regular school day prior to April 6, 2007, will have their salary docked for the amount of time missed. For the 2007-2008 school year, employees who do not attend seven hours of contractual professional development outside of the regular school calendar or outside of the regular school day prior to March 21, 2008, will have their salary docked for the amount of time missed.

During the 2006-2007 school year, in lieu of a scheduled staff development day, employees are required to attend three two-hour staff development activities after the end of their regular school day.

Staff members may be absent from regularly scheduled staff development activities, including the three two-hour staff development activities described above, only for specified reasons. Those specified reasons for acceptable absence are: sick leave as described in Section 8-1 A.1.; emergency leave described in Section 8-1 A.2.; adoption leave; civic leave; jury duty leave; bereavement leave; assault and/or battery leave; or professional leave. Staff members absent for reasons not listed above will receive a pay dock for the inservice time missed. The pay dock for missing a 2-hour, after-school staff development activity will be a dock of 2.33 hours (7 /3).

Part-time staff members are to attend all district and building staff development.

Two (2) days will be used for parent conferencing or as compensatory days for conferencing with parents.

5-5 Inclement Weather Days

Certificated employees will not be required to make up the first two student days canceled due to inclement weather in each contract year. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent the District from scheduling sufficient instructional hours to meet the requirement of the Nebraska statutes.

5-6 Conferencing Days

In addition to the two (2) compensatory days described in 5-4 above, certificated employees shall receive up to three and one-half (3.5) hours per semester additional annual leave for time spent conferencing above the seven (7) hours per semester described in 5-4. Said time shall accumulate on a one-for-one basis above the seven hours. A maximum of three and one-half hours per semester (seven hours per year) may be earned in this manner.

5-7 Staff Development

The courses mandated for certificated employees will be provided without cost to certificated employees. Courses required by the State Department of Education for an endorsement are not considered mandated by the Lincoln Public Schools. The Staff Development Advisory Committee will be established with the LEA appointing five to serve on this committee. The scope and function of this advisory committee shall be determined by the committee.

a. Formal professional growth records will be maintained only as required by statutes for this purpose.

b. Participants who wish to place a total record of their formal professional growth activities in their personnel file may do so.

c. Part-time employees have the opportunity to use staff development courses credit when making horizontal advancement on the salary schedule. Professional growth points are not required for part-time staff employed less than 50 percent. Probationary employees who are half time or more must complete 30 professional growth points before tenure is granted.

d. All staff development activities conducted within the district will be labeled “Required” or “Voluntary”. Certificated employees shall be expected to attend those sessions labeled as “Required”.

e. Staff development which shall be mandated as a requirement for Lincoln Public Schools certificated employees shall be offered during the contract day and cannot be used for horizontal advancement on the salary schedule.

f. Receipts will be issued to all employees at the time they pay LPS for staff development courses. Copies of the receipts will also be retained by LPS so records may be kept regarding the professional growth activities of the certificated staff.

5-8 Personnel Handbook

Changes in the Personnel Handbook shall not be made without advice from the Personnel Handbook Advisory Committee composed of two Association members appointed by the LEA President, and two by the Associate Superintendent for Human Resources.

Where sections of the Professional Agreement are printed in the Personnel Handbook, the wording in the Personnel Handbook will be the same as that stated in the Professional Agreement.

5-9 Covering Class or Combining Classes in the Absence of a Substitute

Certificated employees shall not be required to cover a class for another certificated employee when a substitute is authorized and available. In an emergency situation where no other alternative is available, however, a certificated employee having a planning period may be asked by his or her principal or equivalent to cover a class but this assignment shall be divided equally among all certificated employees.

1. If the teacher gives up planning time, the compensation shall be paid at the rate of a workshop leader per class hour ($33.68 per hour in 2006-2007 and $34.86 per hour in 2007-2008).

2. In this emergency situation, if a teacher is asked to have additional students in their class due to a substitute not being available, the teacher shall be compensated:

By receiving workshop leader rate for one hour of coverage

When class-combining time exceeds one hour, the teacher shall instead receive a substitute teacher’s pay for 3.75 hours.

When class combining time exceeds 3.75 hours, the teacher shall instead receive a substitute teacher’s full day pay.

3. If more than one teacher accepts additional students from the same class for which no substitute was available, they shall be compensated as follows:

By each teacher receiving workshop leader rate for one hour of coverage

When class combining time exceeds one hour, the teachers shall instead receive a substitute teacher’s pay for 3.75 hours divided equally among the teachers who accept the students.

When class combining time exceeds 3.75 hours, the teachers shall instead receive a substitute teacher’s full day pay divided equally among the teachers who accept the students.

5-10 Certificated Employee Visitation

New certificated employees will be provided an opportunity away from school and without classroom responsibilities to visit or participate in inservice activities within the district with the prior approval of the building principal and the Human Resources office during the first school year. The visitation or participation will be limited to one day equal to the employee’s F.T.E.

5-11 Notification of Extended Contract Other Than Extra-Standard

Any certificated employee, other than team leaders, coordinators and department chairs, serving with an extended daily rate contract shall continue to serve from year-to-year unless notified by the Human Resources Department by April 15. During the 2006-2007 school year, the extended daily contract pay shall be 1/190 of the certificated employee’s current base pay for each day of extended contract duty. During the 2007-2008 school year, the extended daily contract pay shall be 1/191 of the certificated employee's current base pay for each day of extended contract duty. Additional certificated employees authorized to serve on extended contract shall be notified in writing by the tenth contract day of the school year.

5-12 Itinerant Assignment

The district will attempt to limit interschool travel for certificated employees who are assigned to more than one school building. Such certificated employees will be notified of any changes in their assignment at least five (5) working days in advance of the change. A thirty-minute duty free lunch period and fifty minutes of planning will be provided daily. Planning time will be provided in accordance with Section 5-16, "Professional Time for Educators".

5-13 Staffing Resources

All employees shall have the opportunity to contribute to decisions regarding the utilization of staffing resources within their buildings as allocated.

5-14 Affirmative Action

The Board and the Association are committed to assuring equal educational opportunities for all students, to recognizing the rights and dignity of all persons, and to implementing policies which provide equal opportunity and ensure nondiscrimination in employment for all certificated employees. The Lincoln Public Schools shall actively recruit, hire and maintain professional minority staff.

5-15 Class Size Appeal Process

The following process is to be utilized by any certificated employee who, in his or her professional judgment, believes that the number of students or the composition of students assigned to that certificated employee to be educationally improper. The certificated employee confers with his or her principal regarding the problem. In the event that the certificated employee and principal are unable to agree upon a mutually acceptable solution, the certificated employee and principal shall refer the matter to the Associate Superintendent for Instruction or designee. The Associate Superintendent shall respond in writing to the parties within seven (7) working days after the referral. The decision of the Associate Superintendent is not grievable.

5-16 Professional Time for Educators

A. Elementary Planning Time
1. The District shall provide a minimum of two hundred and fifty (250) minutes per week of planning time for all elementary certificated employees within the student day. Each week certificated employees shall receive daily blocks of planning time, three of which shall be at least fifty (50) minutes. Blocks of time less than twenty-five (25) minutes shall not be counted as planning time. The following will be scheduled within all buildings:
a. Travel time between the back-to-back special classes *; and
b. A minimum of 25-minute sections for each special class *.
c. Five (5) minutes of preparation/set up time between fifty (50) minute sessions for special classes.*
*Special classes may include, but are not limited to, physical education, music, art, computer, creative expression, writing, science, media, etc.

2. Principals, with staff participation, shall schedule a 45-minute block of planning time per day immediately before or after the scheduled student day. Blocks of time less than 25 minutes are not counted as planning time.

3. The School District shall provide four (4) calendar days of planning time for elementary certificated employees within the student calendar and independent of the other staff development, compensatory and non-contract days. These days shall be allocated one per quarter for each certificated employee as individual planning time.

4. Every elementary certificated employee shall have the above-stated planning time. In the event scheduling conflicts do not allow the employee to receive all such planning time, the employee shall receive prorated optional pay for the amount of time not provided. Kindergarten teachers by mutual agreement with their principal will schedule their planning time either in one (1) 50-minute block of time or two (2) 25-minute blocks of time per day.

B. Middle School Level Planning Time

It is educationally sound and desirable that middle school buildings, in order to meet the needs of their students and faculty, be allowed to design middle school plan time delivery systems which may vary from building to building.

Regrouping of students within the student contact time is allowable for middle school buildings at the educators’ discretion. Daily plan time may be adjusted at the educators’ discretion, in order to accommodate the regrouping of students, provided that educators receive 500 minutes of plan time per week within the confines of the student day.

Home base, as designed by individual buildings, may be implemented during the regular student day. This will require prorated compensation at optional period pay should the home base delivery system result in a loss of plan time and/or an increase in the educators’ standard number of students seen in a day. Acceptance of a home base assignment by a certificated employee shall be strictly voluntary.

C. Secondary Planning Time

Planning time is provided for certificated employees with regularly scheduled classes. All secondary certificated employees with regularly scheduled classes shall have five (5) duty periods and two (2) plan periods.

D. Counselor Office Time

All counselors shall have the same amount of office time per day as the planning time that is provided per day to other certificated employees at the same level during which they may work on individual tasks and planning needs without other assigned duties.

5-17 Night School Assignment

Night school assignments shall be voluntary. If no staff members volunteer for a night school assignment, they may be assigned by the principal. Certificated employees shall not be involuntarily assigned to a night school assignment two (2) years consecutively.

5-18 Guidelines for General Staff Meetings

Association and district leaders recognize that building meetings are essential to the effective operation of our schools and that such meetings will, on occasion, extend beyond the regular work day hours. In response to an increasing interest in recent years on the part of educators in becoming involved in the decision-making process, the district has sought to provide for meaningful staff discussion and participation in formulating programs and procedures that directly affect them. Such involvement is, obviously, time consuming and cannot always be accommodated within the regular school days due to the need to protect educator/student contact time.

Both the Lincoln Education Association and the District would like to function in an environment in which participatory management is successful and where professional educators have increased choice about their attendance at meetings. To that end, (1) an agenda for all general staff meetings shall be developed and distributed to staff no later than the day before the meeting; (2) all general staff meeting agendas shall clearly indicate if the meeting is mandatory or optional for staff attendance; and (3) the length of all general staff meetings shall be reasonable and take into account the time constraints that exist upon the staff, that general staff meetings occur when a staff has already put (or will be putting) in a full contract day with students, and reflect the fact that staff are already performing additional duties on a regular basis outside of the contract day.

Should any staff member(s) have recurring concerns about the number or length of mandatory general staff meetings in their building, not receive agendas on time or not have agendas which clearly indicate if meetings are optional or mandatory, or question the need for the meeting based upon its content, the staff member(s) shall document their concern. Documented concerns shall be shared with the building administrator. Should concerns about general staff meetings continue at the building, documented concerns along with steps which have already been taken at the building level shall be sent to both the Associate Superintendent for Instruction and the Lincoln Education Association President. These two individuals shall review the documentation and conduct additional fact finding as necessary. In the event that the Associate Superintendent for Instruction and the Lincoln Education Association President agree there are concerns regarding a building’s general staff meeting schedule, a conference between the principal and the Associate Superintendent for Instruction shall take place to address and correct the concerns. Should the Associate Superintendent for Instruction and the Lincoln Education Association President fail to agree regarding a staff member(s)’s concern, either the Associate Superintendent for Instruction or the Lincoln Education Association President may take the issue to the LEA-LPS Professional Committee (PROCOM) for a final decision.

The above outlined procedures do not apply to staff meetings that are called in response to an emergency situation.

5-19 Variance

The Lincoln Public Schools and the Lincoln Education Association recognize that there can be deterrents to school improvement. These deterrents may occur in Nebraska Department of Education Regulations, School Board Policy, Administrative Regulations or the Professional Agreement. In order for sites to overcome these deterrents, a Site Variance Process has been developed. The process is outlined in the Certificated Personnel Handbook. The site variance process may only be changed with the consent of the LPS Board of Education and the Lincoln Education Association Board of Directors.

5-20 “Best Practices” of Student Discipline Handbook

PROCOM developed the “Best Practices” of Student Discipline Handbook to provide a practical tool for all staff to facilitate communication and to improve student discipline practices and procedures throughout the district. The Handbook is not meant to be comprehensive and it is expected that it will be updated on a regular basis to include additional “best practices” that staff members develop. The Handbook is not meant to replace or supercede any existing LPS policies or State and Federal laws.

A copy of the Handbook shall be provided to all certificated new hires when they are employed by the District.

The Handbook may be revised as needed. All revisions in the Handbook shall be developed by a joint LPS/LEA Committee. Any changes in the Handbook shall be jointly agreed upon by the Lincoln Education Association Board of Directors and representatives of the Lincoln Public Schools.