Time Off

Contents

Unplanned Absences

The office coordinator manages unplanned time-off. Unplanned time-off may be due to illness or an emergency situation. The operation of the program depends on regular, timely attendance; all staff are encouraged to minimize unplanned absences and to be in their classrooms at the designated start time of their schedule. Teachers may return to work as soon as they feel well enough to work and manage their illness.

Protocol for Unplanned Absence

If you are unable to come to work, please follow every step detailed in the protocol below. Please communicate well in advance of your scheduled work time, preferably the evening before and at least by 7:00 a.m. If you are too sick to make multiple calls, please call your immediate supervisor and s/he will make the calls.

Please create an email address group that includes the director, assistant director, two level coordinators, and all your team members. Please use this group every time your send an email regarding an unplanned absence.

Please follow each step as soon as possible, and no later than 7:00 am.
1. Call 413-585-3290 and leave a voicemail message as soon as possible and no later than 7:00 am. Please include all the information below in your message.
2. Email Martha, Jen, Laurie, Lori, Malka, and all your team members as soon as possible and no later than 7:00 am and include the following information:
  • The hours you are working that day
  • Plans you have made to cover your absence (e.g., arranging for someone to work early to have a familiar person greet the children and families))
  • Anything unusual in your room (e.g., a child who is away on vacation, a visitor, a birthday, etc.)

3. Confirm that your supervisor has received your message

4. Follow any protocol specific to your classroom.
 

Family Sick time

The Smith College Staff Handbook details the policy for family sick time.
If you need to take a family sick day, please let your supervisor and the office coordinator know that the day is a family sick day by indicating it as such on the Time-Off Request form, if you know in advance, or in the case of an unanticipated absence, in your conversation with your supervisor and in the message you leave on the Fort Hill voice mail. In addition to communicating family sick time through the time-off request process, family sick time should be recorded:

  • in the comment section of the leave report (exempt employees) or in the family sick section of the time sheet (non-exempt employees); and,
  • on the sign-in sheet when you return to work.

Staffing During Unplanned Absences

If a rotating teacher is not available to cover for unplanned sick time, the classrooms collaborate to provide staffing that meets EEC regulations. The office coordinator may facilitate the collaboration.

Planned Absences: Time-Off Requests

CECE staff members are Smith College employees and are entitled to the time-off and leave benefits as described in the Smith College Staff Handbook. Teachers plan time-off requests collaboratively with their teaching team to ensure that the classroom team is appropriately staffed at all times and that all team members are aware of any changes in the staffing. Teachers communicate daily changes to parents with a message on the white board.

The Time-off Request form is available on Google Drive on the Frequently Accessed Documents page in the Google Drive Fort Hill Teachers Folder. Please click here to access the Time-Off Request Form.

Staff members submit a Time-off Request form for any and all time needed away from their scheduled time of work. Planned time-off is granted when rotating teachers are available and an employee has accrued the necessary amount of time to accommodate the request and cover the mandated vacation times (please see below). Please verify that you have the time available for both the request and for mandatory vacation time prior to requesting time-off. Unpaid time-off will be granted only in extraordinary circumstances. Time-off requests are approved on a first-come, first-served basis; please plan your time-off request well in advance of the date you are requesting.

The office coordinator sends Time-Off Approval notices in response to each request; this notice may either approve or deny the request, depending on departmental needs and the availability of a rotating teachers to cover the hours of the request. Please note that time-off is not guaranteed.  Please wait to make reservations or unchangeable plans until you receive an Approval notice.

If you change your plans and no longer need the time-off, please communicate to the assistant director so she may maintain accurate attendance records and release the substitute to be available for another staff member.

Online Calendar:Time-off Requests and Rotating Teachers’ Schedules

Rotating teachers work in classrooms for both planned and unplanned absences. The office coordinator maintains  the schedules of the rotating teachers on a Google Calendar, Rotating Teachers’ Schedules, which details the approved planned time-off requests of all CECE staff members as well as the rotating teachers’ schedules.  The calendar is available through employees’ Smith College Google accounts. The Google Calendar app is available to access the calendar on your phone. 

Criteria for Approval of Time-Off

Time-off is approved depending on the departmental needs and the availability of a rotating teacher. If an unforeseen, extraordinary circumstance arises and a rotating teacher is not available, please talk directly with your classroom team and the office coordinator to determine if the classroom would be able to operate with reduced staffing to allow for the planned time-off. All alternate staffing patterns must include a “back-up” plan in the event a teacher is out on an unplanned absence on that day. Please note that due to the need for appropriate staffing ratios and consideration of the impact on all teachers and children, it is unlikely time-off will be granted unless rotating teachers are available.

Professional Days

No time-off will be granted during the August professional days. Teachers are strongly discouraged from requesting time-off on the monthly professional days. Professional Days are important days in creating a cohesive, high quality program. In the event of an extraordinary circumstance necessitating time-off on a professional day, no more than two teachers will be approved for time-off. If a teacher is absent on a professional day, s/he is responsible for acquiring all information from that day.

Mandatory vacation time

The CECE is closed for a week in August; all staff must reserve vacation or personal time for these five days; unpaid time will not be approved for the August closing unless all vacation and personal time is exhausted. Supervising teachers work the entire week of Spring Recess in March; teachers work on the professional day of that week, and then have the option of working in the optional three-day March program or using personal or vacation time for the Spring Recess period. Teachers reserve a minimum of one vacation day (if they teach all three days of the March program) for the Spring Recess and a maximum of four vacation days. Teachers register with the assistant director in the fall to work the Spring Recess program.

Medical Appointments

Per College policy, all staff schedule medical and dental appointments outside of regular work hours, if possible. If you must schedule an appointment during work hours, please check the Google Calendar to plan appointments to include your lunch break and to confirm that a rotating teacher is available to cover any additional time needed.  The College policy reads:

If possible, you should schedule medical or dental appointments outside of regular work hours. If this is impractical, check with your supervisor in advance about adjusting your work schedule. Sick leave may be used for doctor, dentist, and other medical appointments which cannot be scheduled outside of work hours.

Documentation of Time-Off

  • All employees, student workers, and visitors sign-in and -out every day.
  • The office coordinator records all staff absences on the sign-in clipboard to allow all staff members to view the daily staffing.
  • The office coordinator records staff absences in a notebook near the telephone in the office.
  • Planned absences are automatically recorded in the time-off request database on Google Sheets.
  • Supervising teachers maintain a calendar in their classrooms to record planned absences.
  • Supervising teachers communicate planned and unplanned absences to families with a daily message on the white board.
  • Time-off is recorded in bi-weekly Time Sheets and Leave Reports.
  • Family sick time is recorded as such on the sign-in sheet and on the Banner electronic time sheet or leave report.

Alternative Staffing Patterns

Reduced Enrollment

When the enrollment in a classroom is lower than scheduled, supervising teachers communicate to the office coordinator, as soon as possible,  to allow teachers to work in classrooms that may need additional teachers on that day.

Reduced Staffing

On some occasions the number of teachers who are absent, due to unplanned time-off, exceeds the number of rotating teachers and available substitutes. The office coordinator determines how best to schedule rotating teachers and to rearrange staffing to meet the needs of the school.

Typical staffing patterns at Fort Hill exceed the EEC mandated teacher:child ratios. There are occasions when the staffing ratios will meet EEC regulations.

Extra Planning Time

On some occasions the rotating teachers are not needed to cover absences and are available to provide extra planning time for supervising teachers. The office coordinator maintains a schedule for allocating extra time for planning for both supervising teachers and teachers.

When a teacher has extra planning time, she records the time on a clipboard in the teachers’ room and the office coordinator records the time as extra time in a Google Sheets database.