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Teacher says mandatory compliance training is being shifted onto teachers’ personal time; asks district to provide work-hour time for completion
Summary
Jennifer McCarthy, a third-grade teacher in Lynn Public Schools, told the School Committee during open mic that required compliance training this fall is being assigned to teachers to complete on their own time and asked the district to provide paid work time for completion.
A third-grade teacher with 27 years in the district, identifying herself as Jennifer McCarthy, addressed the School Committee during open mic on Sept. 11 to request the district provide work-day time to complete required compliance training. McCarthy said teachers must complete multiple required courses within the first months of school and that she was told this year the training is "just part of our personal responsibility" and must be done on their own time. She contrasted that practice with other city employees (police and fire), who, she said, are not expected to complete mandatory training outside scheduled paid work time.
Why it matters: the teacher described several required courses that together total roughly 280 minutes (course 1: 60 minutes; course 2: 90 minutes; mandatory reporter training: 60 minutes; ethics every other year: 45 minutes; stop-the-bleed: 25 minutes). That amount of required time — nearly five hours — represents a substantial time commitment beyond teachers’ contractual and customary work expectations, the speaker said.
Request and proposed solution: McCarthy asked the committee to review the district’s practice and consider repurposing a professional-development day (she suggested the November PD day) to let teachers complete required training during paid work time. She framed the request as a fairness issue and as consistent with historical district practice that previously provided in-day time for similar trainings.
Response and next steps: the committee acknowledged receipt of the complaint during the open-mic portion and thanked the speaker; the transcript does not record an immediate district commitment beyond the teacher’s request. The matter was presented for committee consideration; any formal response or administrative follow-up was not recorded in the meeting transcript.
Speakers quoted in this article are limited to those who spoke on the record in the meeting transcript.
