Reporting to Work

Fort Hill is open to children from 8:00 to 5:00. The office coordinator, assistant director, and director staff the office from 7:45 am until all families have left the building. Teachers’ schedules vary to cover the hours of 7:45 – 5:15. To maintain a calm and effective environment, all staff are expected to be in their classroom, ready to begin working at the time their schedule begins.

Signing-in and out

Staff, student workers, and visitors sign-in and -out of the building whenever they arrive or depart. The office coordinator maintains clipboards for student workers and for staff on the reception counter in the office.  Visitors sign-in and -out in the notebook located on a shelf in the alcove near the monitor in the large common. In the event of an emergency, these records provide information of who is in the building.

Inclement Weather

Pay Procedures

The College follows a bi-weekly pay schedule. For more information on submitting time sheets (non-exempt employees) and leave reports (exempt employees), please see the Smith College Staff Handbook and this User Guide from HR. Employees record time electronically through BannerWeb, which may be accessed through the Smith portal. Please record your time in Bannerweb before the Monday morning deadline. The College sends an e-mail reminder prior to each deadline. If you fail to submit your time by the deadline, please contact Human Resources and copy any communication to your Payroll Approver, which is either the assistant director (non-exempt employees) or director (exempt employees).

Exempt Employees Partial Days

Documenting Work Time

All employees and student workers sign in and out at the reception desk in order to maintain an accurate log of who is in the building at any point in the day. The time of arrival and departure should be accurately recorded (a clock is located adjacent to the sign-in sheet). If an employee is out for a family sick day, s/he should record the day as such on the sign-in sheet. Employees are expected to be in their classrooms, ready to begin the workday, at the time their schedule indicates.

The office coordinator maintains a log of staff attendance.

Overtime never exceed 40 hours per week – approved in advance by director

How does the program provide substitutes for time-off for teachers?

The total amount of benefited leave available to the thirty employees at Fort Hill is considerable

and the program maintains staffing ratios when teachers are out of the classroom.

There are two rotating teachers who cover for planned time-off. Each of the rotating teachers

maintains a “book” with a calendar of the entire year. When a teacher requests time-off, s/he

records her time in the book to reserve the substitute. Because we have two rotating teachers,

only two people can plan time off for the same period. There is a line item in the budget to fund

outside substitutes when teachers are sick and the rotating teachers are “booked.”

Regular rotating teachers, rather than independent substitutes, substitute for planned time-off

Because:

• young children are often uncomfortable with unfamiliar people and receive better care

when they are with familiar adults.

• when regular staff members substitute, all teachers in the classroom meet the

Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) qualifications

are trained, and can be left alone with children.

• regular staff members are familiar with the routines of the classroom and the children and

the classroom can operate smoothly, making it more comfortable for teachers to be out

and for parents to leave their children.

• independent substitutes are less committed to the program and frequently cancel if their

plans change, making long-term planning difficult.

• many independent substitutes are doing the work because they are either in transition or

working around other commitments. It is difficult to find substitutes who will work until

5:00 p.m. and during the summer.

• the Fort Hill program prioritizes full-time admission and many of the children are away

from their primary caregivers for forty-five hours each week. We provide consistent

staffing to best support children who have multiple caregivers in their lives.

Are there drawbacks to the rotating substitute model?

It is more expensive to fund rotating teachers than to contract with outside substitutes because

the hourly rate is higher and the impact on the benefit line item on the budget is greater for

outside substitutes.

There is sometimes less flexibility for teachers – there are thirty employees at the CECE and only

two can plan time-off for the same period. Teachers may request time-off and find that a rotating

teacher is not available to cover the time and they must find an alternate time to take their

planned time-off. The teachers report that this is only problematic during public school/Gill Hall

vacation weeks (February and April). The teachers and administration are planning how best to

address the issue during those weeks.

Would the teachers prefer outside substitutes so they can plan vacation whenever they want?

There are benefits and drawbacks to both systems. The flexibility of contracting with

independent subs is offset by the impact of unfamiliar people on the classroom, the availability

and reliability of independent subs and the time involved in coordinating substitutes. The rotating

teacher model has worked well at Fort Hill.