Michele Becker never thought teaching would be a 9-to-5 breeze. But in the 10 years she's been at it, she has felt the workload grow and her voice in shaping Carroll County's educational policies shrink.

Every year seems to have brought another standardized test for her fourth-graders at Linton Springs Elementary, with no support staff added to help. This year, she learned of newly required lessons she'd have to teach, just three days before the children arrived.

Becker and most other teachers at Eldersburg's Linton Springs say they've had enough. In August, they became the first in a parade of faculties at 11 Carroll schools to launch a work-to-rule action, meaning teachers are working more closely to the terms and hours of their contracts and refusing to take on extracurricular activities. And if enough Carroll teachers agree in a vote that ends today, the job action could expand to all county schools.

Labor demonstrations by teachers typically occur during contract negotiations, providing leverage in the quest for higher salaries. But Carroll teachers, who signed a contract for the next two years, say they're fighting not for money but for a better work environment and more influence on policy-making.

The complaint strikes a chord with teachers everywhere.

"We're watching what's happening in Carroll, and I don't think it's a surprise at all," said Patricia A. Foerster, president of the Maryland State Teachers Association. "We've had just one thing after another added to our duties, but despite the huge new responsibilities, we're not given any new time or resources to support it."

"We all have a workload issue," said Sheila M. Finlayson, president of the teachers union in Anne Arundel County. "More and more keeps being put on the plates of teachers without any additional time to do things."

Carroll County teachers say they want parents and administrators to realize that they already work far beyond the bounds of their contracts, and that if the burdens don't ease, they'll be unable to educate children properly.

"Right now, we're performing our jobs adequately, at best, and it just gets harder every year," Becker said. "Soon, we won't be able to do it."

Many administrators and parents seem confused by the sudden uprising.

"We feel like this has come out of the blue, and it's hard to solve problems when you don't know what they are," Carroll school board President Susan W. Krebs said.

Krebs said few teachers have taken advantage of opportunities the board has offered them to give input on policy making.

Superintendent Charles I. Ecker has called the union irresponsible for promoting the work-to-rule action when 80 percent of its members approved a new contract just last month.

"The board must balance the needs of the school system with available funds," he wrote in a letter to The Sun.

Parents seem conflicted.

"We support the teachers, but we wonder what kind of message they're sending to the kids when they say they can't help with certain things because they're outside the contract," said Claire Kwiatkowski, president of the county council of PTAs. "All of us feel unappreciated in our jobs sometimes, but we keep doing what we do and hope some good comes of it."

'A much better system'

Teachers realize they face a difficult sell with parents and administrators. They don't have a specific list of demands and can't say exactly which response from administrators might end the work-to-rule movement.

"We're trying to say that if they listen to us, it will be a much better system in the long run," said Ralph Blevins, a 29-year veteran of the school system who teaches at North Carroll Middle School and once led the teachers union. "But we can't offer a single answer."

Teachers say their jobs have grown much harder over the years. Federal and state requirements ask them to blend children with physical, mental and emotional disabilities into the classroom. They've had to implement barrages of standardized tests, designed to increase accountability in education. Teachers say that whenever a new requirement is added, an old one should be eliminated so the overall workload doesn't increase.

Others complain that they have to do clerical work every day because of the shortage of secretaries.

High school teachers say they're tired of hearing about colleagues in other systems who get thousands of dollars in stipends for running clubs such as the National Honor Society, services Carroll teachers traditionally have provided for free. Special education teachers at all levels say they could work 24 hours a day and still not complete all the paperwork required by federal, state and county laws.

During the summer, with concerns about increasing workload brewing, teachers watched as a difficult contract discussions ended with them receiving smaller raises than they'd negotiated in an earlier, tentative agreement. Soon after the negotiations ended, Krebs, the school board president, was quoted in a newspaper article as saying, "I don't want to tell people to leave our school system, but if you're that unhappy, go somewhere else."

Krebs said she has apologized for her remarks, but they represented the last straw for Becker and many other Linton Springs teachers. Their job action quickly spread to four other schools and then to 10.

'Never get specifics'

School officials say teachers' cries for more respect are nebulous.

"We always tell them to tell us what parts of the curriculum they want to abandon, but it's always, 'Oh, we can't get rid of that,'" Krebs said. "We never get specifics from them."

The union has asked teachers at all schools to support a countywide work-to-rule action, and the ballots are due today. Tomorrow, union leaders will appear before the school board with the results. They say that if 75 percent of their 1,450 members approve the action, they will bring a list of specific concerns to meetings with school administrators.

Union officials and teachers throughout the county have so far said they're unsure what the results of the vote will be. Teachers at Linton Springs have drafted a list of 20 points they want addressed, among them shortages of planning time, support staff and equipment. The teachers presented these points to their school's PTA in an encounter parents called enlightening and surprising.

After the meeting, parent Mary Laulis wrote in a letter to Ecker that teachers "are now so bogged down with paperwork and curriculum that they no longer have as much time to teach and interact with our children. ... If we cannot reward them in monetary fashion, reward them by recognizing and giving them a voice. Listen, because you will hear their pain and fatigue."

Sun staff writers Laura Loh, Tricia Bishop and Jonathan D. Rockoff contributed to this article.