Why are admin meetings taking over teacher prep periods?
Administrators and instructional coaches are scheduling mandatory weekly meetings during protected planning time, leaving teachers unable to finish their work during the school day. Because of this lost prep time, teachers are forced to work on weekends just to catch up on grading and lesson planning.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Reporting missed prep periods in a missed prep bookDid this help you?
- 2Filing grievances through the unionDid this help you?
- 3Asking disruptive clarifying questions during meetings to make them inefficientDid this help you?
- 4Documenting everything and working strictly to the contractDid this help you?
- 5Ask the coach to demonstrate techniques or model advice in classDid this help you?
- 6Put an alarm on during meetings and get back to workDid this help you?
- 7Set meetings right before a scheduled class so they have a hard stopDid this help you?
- 8Control the calendar schedule, keep meetings short, and set an agendaDid this help you?
- 9Giving written input beforehand and attending only a portion of the meeting with parent permissionDid this help you?
- 10Scheduling a continuation on another day if a meeting runs too longDid this help you?
- 11Leaving early if dismissed by the person running the meeting or if there is a good reasonDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“At the end of the meeting, we were informed that these meetings would be held weekly during our prep.”source ↗
“I'm having a hard time getting all the stuff I need to get done during plan and the instructional coach wants to meet up.”source ↗
“For reference, we met 45 minutes once and she didn't have much to offer me. She's super friendly, but it's not feeling purposeful to meet with her right now.”source ↗
“Recently, my coworker was required to stay for the entirety of a 5-hour IEP starting before 9am. She spoke less than 10 minutes. Missed almost the whole day of classes.”source ↗
“The longest I've been present for one is 3.5 ish hours but I was dismissed early. The meeting ran longer. Average they are 2-4 hours.”source ↗
“Losing prep constantly to meetings forces me to have to work on my own time on weekends.”source ↗
“I find that during most PDs, I notice myself feeling like it is a waste of valuable time. Meanwhile, I have so many things I need to do regarding planning, prepping, and grading.”source ↗
“It becomes frustrating knowing how much work I need to do, yet I’m stuck in a room being “trained” on a teaching strategy, navigating curriculum, family engagement—all things I know how to do effectively enough without requiring more “training.””source ↗
“Mine aren’t structured that way, but they usually are a complete waste of time and often money since they often fly in some carnival barking grifter to present to us”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why am I penalized for working during planning periods?
- 2Why is it so hard to get budget approval for preventive maintenance?
- 8Teacher staff meetings that could have been an email
- 3Unexpected performance review meeting request tomorrow morning
- 3Ideas for engaging lunch and learns across multiple time zones
- 3Why do hangouts always start right at kid bedtime?