Organization Day - Past Practice Enforced

By contract, principals are required to review several items with their staff on organization day:

• The school's student discipline policy
• The MPS Parent/Student Handbook on Rights, Responsibilities, and Discipline
• The emergency communication procedure
• The school's crisis plan

However, some principals scheduled long meetings with additional agenda items.

In response, MTEA staff insisted that the administration honor the past practice of providing teachers time to work in their classrooms on organization day.

The administration finally agreed, and issued a directive to principals that they follow the practice.

The directive:

RE:  URGENT CLARIFICATION - Organization Day

Principals and APIC's,

. . . Continued concerns regarding School Leaders scheduling meetings for the entire day are being brought to the attention of administration.

You may NOT fill the entire organization day with agenda items. Since the first official day of work for teachers who follow the traditional calendar is Monday, August 31, 2009, it is in your school's and students' best interest to allow teachers time to work in their classrooms after your organization day meeting. Items not required by contract or not necessary for the first week of school should be deferred to your first staff meeting in early September. As outlined below, it is the past practice to allow time for teachers to prepare their rooms for students on this day.

Please immediately revise any agenda which fills the entire day with meetings. . .