Faculty & Staff Essential Practices

The POST OAK SCHOOL

Faculty & Staff Essential Practices

Our 61st Year The 2024–2025 academic year marks the sixty-first year for The Post Oak School! We look forward to all that our students will amaze us with this year. This begins with our commitment to our work and our community.

The students rely on us and we rely on each other to bring our best selves to work each day.

Working Hours We are so happy you have chosen to work here at The Post Oak School.

We want you here every day to support the students and share your talents with our community.

Each day you are here is a gift to the children and we know it. Please take care of yourself. The school has leave policies in place that we ask employees to utilize for sick time, vacation, and family care emergencies.

We encourage you to use your time at home to rest and recharge!

Sometimes salaried employees are required to work from home or after normal work hours. Hourly employees need to check with their supervisor before working overtime hours. If you have questions, please speak with your supervisor.

On-Time Arrival As part of our work in service to our community, employees are expected to be on campus and ready to work during contractual times. Please arrive on time.

Life and emergencies happen. If you are running late, inform your supervisor and any team member who is depending on your timely arrival.

For Bissonnet Campus employees: If you are assigned to morning arrivals, please call the front office as soon as possible if you are running late so that someone may be reassigned to cover your shift and keep arrivals running smoothly.

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Sign In & Sign Out Procedures For safety and security purposes, all employees must follow the sign-in/ sign-out procedures at their campus. This includes: •

Enter and exit your respective building through front office/door (the sign-in/sign-out entrance). Do not enter the building first from another entrance before moving to the front office/door (e.g.

Do not enter through your classroom door before going to the sign-in/sign-out area.)

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Exempt employees must sign in and out on the paper roster at the front office/door of their respective campuses. This helps supervisors account for you in case of emergency and helps our payroll specialist track your work times. Paid Time Off (PTO)/ Payroll will be adjusted to reflect what is on sign-in/out sheets and in ADP (online payroll and benefits system).

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Non-exempt employees clock in and out on ADP at the front desk.

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Be personally responsible for signing in and out. Do not sign another employee in or out (unless they are standing at the sign-in/ sign-out area with you).

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Enter vacation hours and sick times to ADP to track your PTO accurately.

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Environment & Space Care of Shared Spaces and Supplies Our Montessori roots focus on a communal perspective of shared spaces.

Shared spaces: Kitchens, copy room/areas, work rooms, meeting and conference rooms, outdoor eating areas (including picnic tables) If you would like to use a shared area that requires a reservation—e.g.

Meeting Room 111 or the Parenting Center at BC—reserve the space in advance using internal calendars. (For reservation instructions, please see a campus receptionist.)

When using shared spaces and supplies, please clean up after yourself and your classes (as applicable). Return the space and supplies how/where they belong. If you don’t know where something belongs or how to reset a space, please ask your supervisor or the person responsible for that space.

It is not the responsibility of the cleaning crew to maintain these shared spaces.

Kitchens: Wash, dry, and put away shared dishes and instruments.

Instruct volunteers on how to use and reset a kitchen space. Please return all dishes and utensils to their homes so that they don’t get lost. (No spoon gets left behind!)

Workrooms: Return any supplies to their designated homes. Place any trash and recycling in their respective receptacles.

Coffee use: Be kind! If a coffee pot is running low, make a new pot! If any coffee supplies are out, refill them (if you have time) using the supplies located in the cabinets. There is no designated coffee station refill person.

Share the coffee love!

School vehicles: All school vehicles must be reserved in advance. Keys are picked up at the front office and should be returned to the front office as soon as you return. (Check your pockets before going home!) Make sure you and your students remove all trash, return windows to the up and locked position, and take all personal belongings.

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Doors For the community’s safety and security, do not prop open any external doors around the buildings that are not within a locked gated area. Do not prop any external doors during warmer months when the AC is working hard to cool down the buildings.

If you need to transport items through a door at a different location other than a front entrance, you must first sign in through the front door. Find another employee to stand by any propped doors while you move things in and out.

Parking If you have a designated parking spot, please park in your spot. Do not park in a reserved spot, including visitor parking and accessibility parking spaces, unless you have permission to do so or are assigned to that space.

If you need to temporarily use a visitor parking spot, check with the front desk in advance to see if those are temporarily available.

Pedestrian Gates When arriving to school by foot, please use pedestrian gates to walk onto your campus. For your safety, do not enter campus through car gates to cross to a sidewalk. Pedestrian gates are open from 7:00 am–6:00 pm on the Bissonnet Campus and from 7:30 am–5:30 pm on the Museum District Campus.

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Communications & Devices Communications Tools and Expectations The school officially uses email, an employee newsletter (Inside Post Oak), and Microsoft Teams for communications to employees. All employees are responsible for checking all three daily, even if a department uses alternate modes of communication (including text, Slack, etc.).

In case of emergency, the school will reach all employees directly through a phone call, text message, and email. Ensure the administrative team has your updated contact information on file by checking ADP.

Email Response Times Employees must respond to parent and employee emails that require a response within 24 hours during the business week, even if to say that you will follow up with that person at a later time.

Deadline Discipline In consideration of your teammates, adhere to set deadlines when tasks or assignments are due. If you need additional time, please let your colleague know in advance of the due date.

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Phone Policy At Post Oak, we strive to create an environment that fosters the development of focus and concentration in our students. The use of a personal cell phone in a classroom or other learning spaces can be distracting and unprofessional. When you are working directly with students, an employee’s attention should be solely focused on the students.

During your work day, using a cell phone for personal reasons is unacceptable except when on breaks and before/after school. Please be courteous and silence your cell phones during the day.

Phones for Photography If you take a photo or video with your personal phone, the media must be transferred to a school-owned device or account and permanently deleted from your phone within 24 hours. Do not keep photos or videos of students on your personal devices.

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OUR MISSION The Post Oak School is a diverse and welcoming Montessori community that honors and guides lifelong learners as they create their own bold pathways in leading purposeful lives.

BISSONNET CAMPUS 4600 Bissonnet Street, Bellaire, Texas 77401 Phone 713-661-6688 | Fax 713-661-4959 MUSEUM DISTRICT CAMPUS 1010 Autrey Street, Houston, Texas 77006 832-538-1988 | Fax 832-538-1926 www.postoakschool.org