BOULDER — Six months after contract negotiations between the Boulder Valley School District and teachers first fell apart, many educators are now working only 37.5 hours a week, picketing outside their schools and drumming up community support for their cause.
On Tuesday, Louisville Elementary teachers sent an e-mail to parents informing them that they’re now working only the 37.5 hours in their contract instead of spending 60-plus hours a week preparing lessons, grading papers and meeting with parents. Teachers’ recent decision to “work to contract” in protest of stalled negotiations means they’ll now use some of the class time they previously spent with students to work on projects they once did after school.
” ‘Working to contract’ means coming in at 7:30 a.m., leaving at 3 p.m., and not spending the evening planning lessons and preparing materials,” Louisville Elementary teachers wrote in the e-mail. “We will continue to be committed to being ‘in the moment’ with the children during the day, however, some things will look different.”
Boulder Valley teachers have long threatened to work to contract, picket, call in sick or even strike if district officials didn’t move toward implementing a “professional salary schedule,” which rewards teacher education and increases starting pay. Teachers began leafleting the community with information about the contract impasse Oct. 26, some have been picketing before and after school, and more teachers have started working to contract, said Melissa Tingley, president of the teachers’ union.
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