5-1. Regular School Day
The regular school day for middle school teachers shall not exceed seven hours with a continuous lunch period of forty-five minutes with no work responsibilities. Teachers’ lunch shall not be scheduled before the first scheduled student lunch period and shall not be scheduled after the last scheduled student lunch period. Each teacher’s day shall be comprised of: 1) no more than 296 minutes of instruction, 2) 15 minutes of non-classroom supervision, 3) 60 minutes of continuous duty-free preparation, and 4) 10 minutes of continuous teacher-directed preparation that will be contiguous with the teacher’s existing preparation time, lunch period or the start of the school day. Four days each week the teacher’s 60 minutes of continuous preparation time shall be self-directed; one day each week this period shall be principal-directed. When the student assessment schedule is less than half of the teacher’s regular scheduled instructional time and a teacher’s duty-free preparation period is cancelled due to the schedule, the principal shall schedule a make-up duty-free preparation period in accordance with Article 27-5.
5-1.1. Preparation Periods During Shortened Weeks.
Effective SY2025-2026, to ensure that weekly preparation time remains proportional when the workweek is shorter than five work days, both teacher-directed and principal-directed preparation time will be adjusted based on the number of workdays. For example, in a four-day workweek, teacher-directed preparation time will consist of three 60-minute blocks and one 48-minute principal-directed period, with an additional 12 minutes of teacher-directed time.
5-1.2. Advisory Periods.
A fifty-minute advisory period may be added to the middle school schedule once a week, replacing the daily 10-minute teacher-directed preparation period with a single fifty-minute teacher-directed preparation period by following the procedures for waivers outlined in Appendix C.
5-1.3. Professional Development Days.
Effective SY2025-2026, the number of teacher-directed professional development (PD) days for elementary and middle school teachers shall be increased from three (3) to six (6). Additionally, the principal-directed prep periods during the last week of each quarter will be converted to teacher-directed.