NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – Families with children in the low-performing Hayden-McFadden Elementary School were probably delighted to receive a letter in the mail earlier this summer, announcing the school would provide children with longer school days beginning in the fall.

But those plans are now in jeopardy, after the head of the New Bedford Educators Association – the local teachers union – said Tuesday the changes are “by no means a done deal,” reports SouthCoastToday.com.

NBEA President Lou St. John said in a news release the union had been “blind-sided” by the announcement of a longer school day and other schedule changes.

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The union “never had a chance to study, consider and negotiate over” the changes, as required by collective bargaining laws, St. John said.

The union’s main gripe is that the re-worked school day will leave teachers with less time to plan their lessons.

“You can’t have good instruction without good preparation. You need both,” St. John said according to the union’s website.

Apparently, the union believes planning lessons is as valid a use of limited school hours as actually teaching them to students.

Most taxpayers and parents would probably expect teachers to spend school time teaching students, and their after-school hours planning the lessons. After all, that’s how most professionals operate.

District leaders thought the union had already agreed to the longer school day, and used that to show the state – in an application for extra funding – that they were taking steps to turn things around at Hayden-McFadden Elementary, reports SouthCoastToday.com.

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New Bedford schools Superintendent Pia Durkin wouldn’t comment on the situation, other than to say she was meeting with union leaders on Thursday.