Tom Fedor/The Gazette
Teachers at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School leave the school as one unit on Friday, part of the "work-to-policy" protest orchestrated by their union.
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Frederick County teachers plan to continue their protests in October, though their actions may not lead to a contract between the Frederick County Teachers Association and the Frederick County Board of Education for this year.
But at the least, protests bring attention to the amount of work teachers do outside their regular work hours, said Gary Brennan, president of the Frederick County teachers' union.
"What we are doing is trying to show the board that we really want them to take a more collaborative approach," Brennan said on Monday, the following school day after teachers staged their first "work-to-policy" protest.
"What I heard was very positive," Brennan said of the protest.
Hundreds of teachers from elementary, middle and high schools throughout the county participated in the protest, working only the hours for which they are paid.
In the morning, they gathered in school parking lots and marched in together. In the afternoon, they met inside their schools and left as a group.
In some schools, teachers who would have normally stayed after school to volunteer with student clubs canceled those meetings. Others who would have normally tutored students or held makeup tests rescheduled.
Tammy Middleton, a teacher at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School, said taking part in the protests was not easy. "The reason we are doing this is to bring attention to the issues that are important to us," she said.
Middleton said she normally arrives at work 45 minutes earlier than she's required. She said she needs that extra time to set up her classroom, check voicemails and e-mails and prepare for her students.
But because of the protests on Friday, she sat in the school's parking lot, awaiting other teachers so they could all enter the school at 7:15 a.m. — precisely the time they are required to begin work under the policy between the Frederick County Teachers Association and the Board of Education.
With only 10 minutes to prepare for class, Middleton knew she would fall behind on e-mails and other tasks that occupy her attention every day.
"I come here at 6:30 every day so I can get all of that done," she said on Friday. "Today, I sat in my car in the parking lot and I thought, ‘This is absolutely killing me!'"
The protest did not disturb academic classes or athletic events on Friday, said Ann Bonitatibus, the school system's associate superintendent for secondary schools.
"All of our teachers are professionals and respectfully honored their contracted duties and responsibilities," Bonitatibus wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette on Friday. "Any athletic activities postponed today were due to the inclement weather."
But if the protests continue in future, that could cause paper grading, for example, to take longer, Bonitatibus said. Teacher volunteer work may decrease and parents may have to wait a longer for teachers to respond to e-mails or phone calls.
"While students and parents may notice the absence of some ‘extras' teachers traditionally have done, they should still expect the delivery of excellent instruction each day," Bonitatibus said.
Despite months of negotiations, the union and the school system have not signed a contract because they couldn't agree on two main issues — the amount of planning time for high school teachers and retiree health care benefits.
The Board of Education wants principals to be able to assign 45 minutes of high school teachers' weekly planning time to mandatory collaboration among teachers. It also wants to make retiree health care benefits a negotiable issue.
The union did not accept the offers, and on Sept. 22 school board president Daryl Boffman announced that the two sides have not signed a contract for the year.
At the board's Sept. 22 meeting, members voted 6-1 to establish a new policy for teachers' working conditions, instead of a contract. Board member Bonnie Borsa was the lone dissenting vote.
Even though she voted to in favor of the policy, board member Donna Crook said at the meeting she would be willing to reassess the issue of teachers' contracts next year. According to board policies only a board member who votes in favor of an issue, can bring it back up for reconsideration.
For Brennan, Borsa and Crook's positions were a good sign.
"It was good to hear at least somebody saying I am willing to continue this discussion," he said.
