We have been asked quite often by part-time teachers about their attendance on PA Days that they are not normally scheduled to work. The Federation has been in conversation with the Board to in an attempt to come to a mutual understanding of the issue. It is not as simple as, you are 0.8 so you will attend 80% of the PA Days. Each teacher can calculate how many PA Days they should attend in addition to those they are already scheduled to work.

To begin, the school year for teachers is 194 working days, which includes six PA Days. If you are part time, you are paid for a portion of this year. For example, a teacher on a 0.4 contract should be scheduled to teach 77.6 days. Teachers are not paid for stat holidays during the school year; they do not make up part of the 194 days for a full time teacher either.

The easiest way to try to determine how many PA Days a part time teacher should attend in addition to any they already are scheduled to work is a follows:

1. If you are already scheduled to work every Friday, then you will not have to do any calculation regarding PA Days.
2. If you only work Tues to Thursday then you will not miss any days and you will not be required to work any PA Days.
3. Calculate the number of days you must work to cover your part-time contract. For example, a 0.4 person works 77.6 days per year. (194 x 0.4 = 77.6) Those working part days as well as part time can divide their minutes by 300 to come up with instructional days. Count how many days you are actually scheduled to work, but do not include holidays and non-instructional days (like the Friday before March Break).
4. If you are already at your number of required days, then you do not have to attend any PA Days in addition to any you are scheduled to work already. If you already have more days than you are required to work, speak to your Admin or phone our office since you might be working over your paid time.
5. If, after counting your days it comes out less than your required days, you will have to attend PA Days equal to this number. For example, if a 0.4 teacher counts that they will only work 75 days throughout the year, then they should attend 2.5 PA Days in addition to any they are scheduled to attend.

The Day 1 to 5 schedule will generally have part-time teachers scheduled to work their correct percentage of instructional time and they will “owe” the same percentage of PA Days. However, we still encourage you to count your days scheduled to work to be certain.

Once you have calculated how many PA Days you should attend, meet with your Principal to confirm the understanding and to determine which PA Day(s) you are to attend. You will likely want to include the December PA Day to provide interviews for your parents and you must be provided with part of the November PA Day for report card writing (e.g. A half time person must be provided with at least half of the Nov 20th day).

There will be unique situations that will not neatly fit into this explanation. Do not hesitate to phone the Local office or e-mail us and we will attempt to help out.