The terrible charter had an extended day, but even that student day was 8:30-4. Of course, the buses dropped hem all off at 8 for breakfast, so I guess they really spend 8 hours at school.
The charter I worked at teachers had a 7:30-4:30 schedule. Students were there 8-4:30. In the private school I worked 8-4 and school was in session from 8-3 and after school was 3-7.
7.5-8 hours is the norm for student days around here. It used to be 7 hours as the standard for students, but many districts have gone to longer days in an effort to increase test scores. We're one of the only districts that still has a 7 hour student day, and our district is trying to figure out how they can make the longer day happen. They are doing it next year at the middle/high school by staggering teacher start/end times so that the students have a longer day but they don't have to pay the teachers for working more hours. So some teachers will work 7-3 and others might work 8-4, and students will attend 7:30-3:30. It of course works for them since they switch classes, but obviously that won't work for elementary so they're still working on that one.
Whenever I attend PD, it's usually 8-3. However, once in a while, they'll keep us from 8-4. Personally, after a certain time (usually around 2:30), my mind starts to wander and I completely lose focus. I lovingly refer to it as: "I wanna go home" mode!
My P dishes out Yard Duty schedule making to the teachers. I did my school's schedule last school year. The amount of yard duty depends on how many teachers we have Basically, we have a before-school duty, a 1-3 first recess/4-5 recess, and a 1-3 PM recess, and after-school duty which our first grade teachers handle as they walk their students out to be picked up every day. So last year, most of us had 1 before school, 1 AM recess duty and 1 PM duty...so three/week. BTW. I hate yard duty.
I'm thankful everyday my union does not permit us to do any schoolyard or lunch duty. The schedule for the aids is made by the supervising aid and the schedule for classes is made by one of our APs.
We have recess duty about once a week and then we also have either a before school or after school duty on the same day as our recess duty. It's about 40 minutes of duty altogether. Then we also have a door duty once a week where we are in charge of opening a door for students to come in from recess. Apparently our recess supervision time will increase next year.