LEWISTON — Teachers working as many as 100 hours a week will get more time for lesson preparation by giving up three days of professional development.

The School Committee struggled for more than three hours Monday night over how to reduce the workload of educators who say they are at the breaking point.

In addition to more prep time, the committee approved a motion to suspend technology testing and professional development while the administration develops a longer-term plan to reduce the workload.

Teachers are working 80 to 100 hours a week and are still falling behind in lesson prep, they told the committee.

Allison Avery, a team leader at Lewiston Middle School, said members of her team have come to her in tears because the expectations are too high.

“Mental health is at an all-time low,” she said. “Teachers are suffering and afraid they are not putting their best teaching forward. This is their life passion. Their goal is to make sure they are doing all they can for students.”

Preparing lessons for in-person, virtual and fully remote is not possible to do well, she said.

She said other problems are that English language learners are not getting enough support online, there is a vast shortage of educational technicians, and teachers are planning online lessons and adjusting curriculums for students who are months behind.

Schools were closed from mid-March to mid-June to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Many teachers are working until 7 or 8 p.m. “and they still can’t keep up,” Avery said.

Avery was one of dozens who addressed the committee. They spoke of mental and physical exhaustion coupled with anxiety over the pandemic.

Many read statements from colleagues who did not feel comfortable being identified.

Renee Roundy, a sixth-grade teacher at Connors Elementary School, read a statement from an elementary school teacher of grades three to five.

The teacher wrote that she had to send home COVID-19 symptomatic pupils three times in the past two weeks.

“Surfaces of tables and chairs are cleaned Wednesdays, but they don’t seem to be any other time,” the teacher wrote.

“We are creating lessons that no one sees and packets that no one returns,” she said. “Teachers are stressed and frustrated and feel no one is listening.”

Others said they spend hours creating separate lessons for students who are studying remotely. This involves preparing different videos, often four or five per class, for pupils at different levels of coursework.

Superintendent Jake Langlais proposed giving teachers and education technicians three Wednesdays — Nov. 4, Nov. 18 and Dec. 2 — to focus on prep work without student responsibilities.

Some teachers said Wednesdays are the only days they see all of their students, remotely, at the same time and they did not want to lose that.

“Each piece of input has a counterpoint,” Langlais said. “Teachers are being asked to do something extraordinary. No decision we make tonight will make everyone happy.”

Langlais added that the “overwhelming response” from teachers and educational technicians who answered survey questions was, ‘I need more time to prep.’”

The committee voted unanimously to approve the three prep days.

Before that, the board voted 5-3 in favor of a motion by member Elgin Physic to suspend testing of teachers on remote platforms such as Google Classroom and all professional development “until further notice.” Members Alicia Rea, Tanya Whitlow and Chairwoman Megan Parks voted against the motion.

“We need to give teachers the keys to the castle and let teachers teach,” Physic said. “Right now, we need people to teach the kids, not train other teachers how to use technology.”

An amendment to the motion made by member Kiernan Majerus-Collins to give administrators until next Monday to come up with “step one” of a comprehensive plan failed on a vote of 4-4.

The amendment called for Langlais to come back to the committee with a “real, concrete proposal” to reduce teachers’ workloads.

“If we pass it, then (Physic’s) motion would not go into effect, and if we don’t, then (Physic’s) proposal would go into effect Tuesday morning,” Majerus-Collins said.

He earlier made a motion to give each teacher and educational technician a $1,000 bonus for the extra time they are working.

That would amount to nearly $1 million, Langlais said, adding that there was no money in the budget for that.

The motion failed 6-2.

Majerus-Collins was frustrated by the committee’s lack of immediate action, he said.

“We’ve heard all night and prior to this that teachers are at the breaking point,” he said. “What can we do to immediately reduce the pressure, take the lid off the boiling pot and go from there?”

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