Penncrest educators ask board for 'time audit' to ease teacher workloads
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Summary
Representing Penncrest educators, Debbie Miller urged the board to prioritize staff and preserve programs, asking for a district-authorized time audit and three 'high-impact, low-cost' changes to return planning time to teachers working a median 48-hour week.
Debbie Miller, speaking for Penn Crest educators, urged the Penncrest School District board to protect school culture and prioritize staff time as the district prepares its 2627 budget.
Miller told the committee of the whole that teachers are running at a “median of 48 hours a week,” grading and preparing outside school hours, and warned that budget-driven cuts often target programs that make schools effective: electives, clubs and manageable class sizes. She asked the board to authorize a time-audit and reprioritization initiative and proposed three near-term actions to return time to teachers without large budget increases: audit recurring staff meetings to eliminate email-able items, explore innovative master scheduling with staff input to create deep-work blocks, and require removal of a redundant administrative task or platform when a new initiative is adopted.
Why it matters: Miller framed the request as protecting the district’s human capital and the programs that support students’ social and academic development. She asked the board to “prioritize people over programs and culture over convenience” as budget choices are made.
Board response and next steps: The board acknowledged Miller’s appeal; no formal motion or vote on the time-audit request was recorded during the meeting. Administrators noted the district is entering budget season and will present the 2627 budget timeline in April with preliminary approval in May and final adoption in June. Miller invited further conversation with board members and administrators to identify low-cost time wins.
Context: Miller characterized the union's role as advocating not only for staff but for the integrity of the profession and students’ education. She cited prior discussions with elementary principals about time-saving changes and framed the audit as a politically feasible way to restore teacher planning time without a substantial new funding ask.
The meeting did not produce a formal board directive to implement the time audit; the request remains under consideration as the district moves through the budget process.