It's 3 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, and two classrooms at the end of a long hallway at Linton Springs Elementary are crawling with kids.
They've snatched up chessboards from a mountainous stack on a table. They've paired off in tournament matchups. And fourth- and fifth-graders are splayed out across desktops and every usable spot of carpet, plotting their next moves and eyeing their opponents' kings in the quest for checkmate.
Teachers who helped chaperone the children last year are nowhere to be found.
The 50-some children in the Eldersburg school's popular chess club are noisily working their way through a double-elimination tournament under the watchful eyes of parent organizer Linda Stimely and her parent volunteers.
Many teachers who helped out in the past with the chess club and other after-school activities have declined to do so this year.
They are out the door at 2:55 p.m. when, by contract, their workday is over.
For three months, Linton Springs teachers have been "working to rule" in a job action aimed at drawing attention to what many Carroll County public school teachers say is low pay for an overwhelming and ever-increasing workload.
"Our passion for teaching has not changed, and we're still excited to work with our students," said fourth-grade teacher Michele Becker, who lent her classroom to the chess club this year but turned over to parents the mentoring program she started last year.
"The frustration for the job requirements seems to fizzle when you see them come in smiling in the morning," the 10-year veteran teacher said. "But during our planning period and after they leave, you can't help but feel overwhelmed trying to juggle so many balls in so little time."
Trying to gauge how many of the county's 1,800 teachers are participating in the job protest is like taking aim at a moving target.
Counting the participants within one school is difficult because of teachers' varied interpretations of what it means to work to rule, their fluctuating commitment to its practice and the fluid joining and departing of protesting teachers.
Some work only the hours for which they are contractually obligated and refuse to grade papers at home, attend after-school committee meetings or schedule parent conferences after hours. Others stay after school to work but refuse phone calls from parents.
Breaking the rule
Some teachers break their self-imposed restrictions if there's work that simply must get done. And many teachers - some administrators and parents contend that most teachers fall into this category - have continued working just as they did before, with little regard for the clock.
Union leaders point out that 60 percent of the Carroll County Education Association's 1,450 members voted last month to work to rule and that some members of that group are likely sticking more closely to the terms of their contracts.
A majority of the faculty at 12 schools voted to work to rule. At least some teachers at nearly all of Carroll's 37 schools have decided on their own to join the protest, union officials say.
Effect debated
At Linton Springs Elementary, where 95 percent of teachers voted to begin the job action the first week of school, parents disagree about whether the teachers' boycott of after-school work is affecting their children's education.
But it seems the nearly 3-month-old job action is wearing on the school community.
Principal Deborah Bunker refused to discuss the situation, saying that people were "spending way too much time talking about this" and that it was "not a good idea to continue to talk about it."
Vickie Cavey, president of the school's PTA, did not return several phone messages last week. And many teachers found working in their classrooms after their contractual quitting time did not want to be named, explaining that they did not want to be thought of as black sheep by their colleagues.
Some parents and teachers say that school has changed little. Parent volunteers have almost always organized after-school activities at Linton Springs.
In years past, teachers helped keep order within the chess club, but it continues to thrive without them.
The PTA-sponsored drama club still will put on a performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live Jr. next month. And a new track club run by parent volunteers held its last meet Thursday afternoon with both of the school's gym teachers on hand to help out.
Changes are subtle, teachers say, and more discernible to parents than to their children. Math journals might be collected once a week rather than every day. Some graded assignments might not be handed back as quickly as they had been in the past.
Less planning
And lesson plans might not be tailored quite so closely to each class. Some work-to-rule teachers swap worksheets and classroom materials to work more efficiently during the contracted hours.
But Claire Kwiatkowski, president of the Carroll County Council of PTAs, said the job action is harmful to students and that it will inevitably poison the school environment.
"At Linton, teachers will only return phone calls during working hours, so parents can't reach them," said Kwiatkowski, who has close ties with parents there because her children attended the school.
Eddie Beane has three children at Linton Springs. He currently serves as vice president of the countywide PTAs council.
"The good [teachers] shine whether they're there for 7 1/2 hours or 8 1/2 hours or 10 1/2 hours a day. I'm convinced that the teachers my children have - whether or not they've voted to work to rule - are working their darndest to make sure my children get a good education," Beane said.