Teachers need to be protected from non-essential duties that interfere with teaching to reduce the amount of extra, unpaid time they work, a committee of state officials and teachers union representatives said.

For example, the committee said, instead of "excessive mandatory workshops," the school and district calendars should include "meaningful professional development." It also suggests the school day be structured to allow time for teachers to conduct planning, rather than tacking it on as extra time. The committee includes members from the teachers union as well as the state Department of Education.

"All these mandates and initiatives have come down on us," said Karen Shindo, a committee member from Waiakea Elementary representing the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. "It's a dilemma."

Teachers have complained that they are required to do excessive amounts of paperwork and data entry to comply with mandates for the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In addition, they complain they are expected to perform schoolyard duty, keep up maintenance of classroom equipment, and attend workshops and training that they said have no direct connection to school programs — all on top of preparing lesson plans and working in the classroom.

In an update this week for the Board of Education, members of the Time Committee said teachers spread their work over evenings, weekends, holidays and vacations, working thousands of unpaid hours every year.

But a member of the committee said they have never calculated the extra time on a per-day basis because averages are gathered from hundreds of teacher surveys and extra hours vary widely.

Time Committee members expressed some concern about how the preliminary study has been reported in The Honolulu Advertiser, saying members had never intended the total extra hours worked to be divided by the day.

The "254 additional seven-hour workdays per year" that the committee maintains teachers expend come from hours put in after school, in the evening, on weekends and during holidays and vacations, members said.

Currently, the teacher contract provides for a working year of 190 days.

"Although the Time Committee did not identify a 15 1/2-hour workday, it is understandable (the reporter) came up with the figure from the data reported," said a committee member, reading from a statement. "For clarification, the tasks indicated in the report are done by teachers not only during the school day but during non-workdays."

Board members questioned the earlier data presented by the committee, asking how it was gathered and vetted, and the committee noted that teachers were surveyed during conventions and other events, but they did not know the total number who responded.

The second survey elicited 800 responses, said Andrea Eshelman, representing the HSTA. She did not know how many responses were received from the first survey.

Board member Denise Matsumoto asked committee members if they were considering recommending increasing both the teacher workday and work- year in their final report, which is expected in June.

"Everything is being considered," said Shindo.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.