Sullivans school principal says teachers receive ample lunch time

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Sullivans school principal says teachers receive ample lunch time
By Chris Fowler, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, December 2, 2007

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The principal at The Sullivans elementary school denied a teachers union’s recommendations in a grievance filed against him over a change in the teachers’ lunch break.

The Nov. 16 Federal Education Association grievance requested that Principal Dave Russell either cancel his direction that teachers stand lunch monitor duties or, should the requirement remain, pay the teachers “their hourly rate for time spent providing such supervision.”

In his Nov. 29 written response to the grievance, a copy of which was obtained by Stars and Stripes, he denied the request because “all teachers have at least a 30-minute daily duty free lunch” and the monitoring “is performed during the duty day and compensation is within the daily rate for teachers.”

The current FEA contract calls for teachers to have a minimum 30-minute lunch period free of work tasks..

According to one teacher, Russell’s policy and his response have struck a sour note with teachers.

“We are being forced into an un-negotiated change in working conditions, and it is causing a lot of tension,” said the teacher, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation. “Some of us believe the school already has the assets to fix this problem — now what we really need is leadership capable to make it happen.”


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50661