extra duties

[Glenda1]

Hello, I think this subject has been discussed, but it has been a while. My Superintendent requires me to do breakfast duty, bus duty(PM), and sub when needed(anywhere from a few minutes to all day). When I have to miss seeing students he just expects me to "make up" the sessions. I've also had to supervise in house suspensions, serve at a school banquet for 5th and 6th graders during school hours (before, during, and after the dinner which blew my whole day of therapy). I'm the only speech therapist in my district. Does anyone else have to do this much extra at the expense of kids that need therapy? Glenda

<small>[ April 20, 2007, 08:49 AM: Message edited by: Glenda1 ]</small>

[Debby]

What you are doing sounds like too much!! In our district we can have bus duty or before school duty but not be a sub or supervise in house suspension. Can you remind him that your services are legally required because of the IEP for your students? If he has a supervisor try talking with that person. Your district has legal representation and contacting that person might be a good idea to remind the principal that you are bound by law to provide the services on the IEP and that there are only so many hours in a day that you are bound by contract to be working. Being the only SLP makes it so much harder on you. How large is your district?

[Glenda1]

Thank you for your response! Our district is very small, but growing. Right now we have approx. 400 students,in one building, PK-6th. My caseload is not too large but I see several individually and my super. has everything scheduled very tightly. I probably have the most freedom of all the teachers. Thank you for your suggestions. I needed an outside opinion. I hope I didn't sound like I was whining. Have a great day! Glenda1

[Karen2]

Glenda,
Where do you live? In Texas SLPs are NOT teachers. Unfortunately many districts put us under teacher salaries. My district does not give me any duties. This infuriates me to be called a teacher and have duties. We have so much more to do than teachers - ARD meetings, paperwork, assessments, reports, staffings, pre-referral meeting, RTI - therapy, screenings, observations, strategies to give to teachers, therapy, and on and on. We do not have time to be doing duties. Fight to change the system!

[Glenda1]

Hi Karen,
Thank you for your response. I live in Oklahoma. I don't think other therapists here are "used" as much as I am. My superintendant is somewhat of a control freak. I only have 3 years until retirement and I'm afraid to rock the boat too much. He just forced our sp.ed. teacher (30 yrs. exper.) into retirement to save money. He doesn't hire subs for the classroom teachers. He just takes a teacher's assistant and uses them as a sub. I'd never had any duties until this Super. came 5 yrs. ago. I'm not sure where I'd start, if I did try to oppose these assignments. Any suggestions?

[megherditch]

I am from Oklahoma, andattended collegeat OU and Phillips. I would just go with the flow..do the duties, share the chores, etc. Its a reason to get some fresh air and wave at the kids. Like you say, you are getting close to retirement and its nice to just go with the flow. Suzanne

[Karen2]

If you are near retirement, I can understand that it is difficult to object. I would have to make a list of my SLP workload and make a case for why I don't have time for additional workload. If you don't have that much of a workload, I guess you can afford to do teacher duties. I have so much with Elem, MS, and HS, plus RTI coming along that I don't have time for additonal duties. Good luck!

[Glenda1]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure how much RTI will affect me and it is very difficult to present any kind of opposition to the super.'s demands(everybody is busy). But I am going to try to make a case for less duty time. Thanks again, Glenda

[Glenda1]

megherditch,
Thanks for responding. Actually, thats what I've been doing. I don't know how much longer I can keep it up though. I don't mind helping out in a pinch but I'm beginning to feel stressed out.
Thanks again,
Glenda

[megherditch]

Sub teaching for the whole day is really over the top. I assume if you asked the superintendant why he didn't just hire a sub, he would say 'why, you are already here and on salary', or 'we don't have the funds', or 'etc. All are probably true. You are working in a rural area and may also be just a convenient option. Stressed out is probably something most, in the schools, feel. Have you contacted your state speech and hearing association? Does the music dept., the coachin dept., the couns. dept., all spec. ed, etc. participate equally?

[Glenda1]

megherditch,
Hello again- yes. We all fill in when and where we're told. We are usually spread pretty thin. The teacher asst. never know "who" they're going to be for the day or if they will have to drop everything to perform a chore the boss deems more important. I just found out that I won't have breakfast duty next year and that he is going to try to hire more teacher assts. He did however ask me to do some evaluations this summer to get a headstart on next year. He didn't offer any extra pay, though.

[SpeechyKeen]

You aren't whining in MY opinion.

I just started at a new district and I told the superintendent himself that I didn't want to do recess duty, bus duty, substitute, nothing like that. I also refuse to write IEPs and ERs at home, or do insurance billing.

Luckily in my area the schools are all desparate for speech therapists. Most have 1 or more openings to fill. I have a FULL caseload of students and too much to do all ready. I can't see why I should be doing these other things that someone with a high school diploma can do.