Wendy L. Doromal
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| Teachers came out to demonstrate before the school board meeting. |
In March 2014 teachers spoke before the OCPS School Board concerning the heavy workload that is burdening teachers.
Every school board member and administrator must know that 50 - 60 hours of mandated tasks do not fit into a 37.5-hour work week. Still, each year, more mandated tasks are given to teachers despite the fact that they regularly protest the burdensome workload and the fact that we are not paid for the hours we spend on our own time to complete school-related work.
As a demonstration of the excessive work, I brought with me to the podium a 20-inch high stack of lesson plans completed by a 14 OCPS teachers outside of their work day.
My statement:
My name is Wendy Doromal. I
am a teacher at Timber Creek High School. Tonight I am addressing the
ever-growing problem of wage theft of teachers.
Over the years the state,
district and school leaders have increased mandated work for teachers. At the
same time schools have stolen teachers’ paid planning time for mandated
meetings or professional development. While teachers’ workloads have increased
significantly and working hours have been added to our plates, no
additional pay is offered for the hours that teachers are forced to work beyond the school
day to complete tasks. OCPS teacher salaries remain
among the lowest in the nation.
OCPS teachers have a contract
that recognizes our workweek as 37.5 hours. The reality is that in order to
effectively fulfill all of the mandated responsibilities of the job, teachers
must work 10, 20, 30 or more unpaid hours a week, every week, all school year.
In fact, many teachers would like to have part-time jobs to supplement their poorly paid teaching jobs, but cannot because their unpaid part-time job after school hours is their teaching job!
Teachers are routinely mandated to
attend professional development training, PLCs or other meetings during their
planning periods. Having to lose planning time means that they must work without pay on their personal time if they are to complete lesson plans, fill out IEPs, meet Marzano evaluation requirements,
contact parents, answer email, conduct research, prepare handouts and fulfill
numerous other mandated duties. Stealing planning time from teachers is wage
theft.
Administrators have piled on ‘off-the-clock’
work with defensive explanations like, “Teaching is a calling” and “We know as
teachers you want what is best for our students.” Of course, teachers want what is best for our students, but
that does not mean that we want to work for free. I love teaching. Teaching is
my passion. However, teaching is not my “calling”. Teaching is my profession and I am a professional. I did not
take a vow of poverty. Every teacher deserves professional treatment and
respect. Every teacher deserves to be paid for every hour of work as
long as that work is mandated by their employer and required for the job.
This year, the district
recommended a new lesson plan template and some schools are
mandating that teachers use the plan. It takes many unpaid hours to complete
any 5-day lesson plan, and many more unpaid hours with the added requirements in the
new template. I present to you today a stack of lesson plans created this year
by OCPS teachers outside of their 37.5-hour contracted workweek. These lesson plans represents the work
of 14 teachers averaging 18.6 unpaid hours each. These lesson plans represent
wage theft.
Wage theft not only steals
money from teachers’ pockets. It steals time –time that can never be regained
–time with family members, time with friends, time working at jobs that pay us
for every hour that we work, and leisure time. I urge you to reduce teachers' workload and increase teachers' planning time. OCPS teachers deserve a fair salary that reflects the actual
hours that we must work to ensure that our students can reach their highest
academic potential.
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