Respondent claims that each period is 25 minutes but petitioner claims each is 30 minutes. Petitioner Lovenguth teaches physical education at the high school with a schedule based on a six-day cycle. She has 500 minutes weekly allocated for planning and preparation. The average of the two student loads is 148.5 students per day. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, special area teachers are to receive the same amount of unassigned time as primary classroom teachers, but have no supervisory duties such as homeroom or collection of students at the end of the day.
All unassigned time is considered part of a teacher's planning and preparation allotment.
Petitioners do not dispute that they are given the planning and preparation time that respondent argues is sufficient for effective teaching but contend that providing the extra time does not diminish respondent's obligation to comply with Commissioner's regulation. Petitioners ask me to order compliance with the regulation and request money damages. Respondent contends that the periods of daily classroom instruction and the students assigned to each of petitioners' classes do not preclude effective teaching. There is no dispute that respondent assigned petitioners to classes exceeding the limitations imposed by regulation. The question arises then whether respondent has offered justification for its deviation.