LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Hello! Many of you were interested in the responses to the topic of duty
free lunch. Some of you wanted me to omit your name, so I just copied and
pasted the messages. Thank you again to everyone who responded!
Thanks,
Malena Bisanti-Wall
Media Specialist
Highlands Elementary
Winter Springs, FL
malenawall@hotmail.com
The way the teachers had duty free lunch was to let the specials teachers
(music, band art, librarian and aides) cover the cafeteria and recess. (30
min. period) Parents were usually in the cafeteria, but were never
responsible for the children.
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We have some parent volunteers in my Catholic school. Primarily it's the
assistants because the parents don't like lunch duty. If the assistant is
absent then the teacher must be with the class.
-----------
For 15 years my own children's school has hired lunch supervisors, who
worked in the lunch room, then followed the students out on to the
playground.
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We have assistants who are hired just for the lunch time, they work 1 1/2 or
2 hours a day. When one is absent there is a substitute. Most are mothers
or grandmothers who want to be involved in the school, but do not want to
work full-time.
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At my present school, ERT's, CRT's, and other admin people cover lunch duty.
At my previous school the PTA paid for "cafeteria ladies" (2 or 3)and that
worked well. If one was absent, an admin person filled in.
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The school aides and assistants cover both the lunch
and the recess in our region which includes 1 high
school, 2 middle schools and 4 elementary schools. If
one of them is absent they get a substitue to cover
all their duties for them.
----------
In my school district, teachers monitor their students during the 30 minutes
students have lunch. Then the kids go outside for recess for 30
minutes.During the 30 minute time period that the kids are outside for
recess,teachers have a 30 minute duty-free lunch. Educational assistants
watch students out on recess duty. Lunch and recess for the kids takes 1
hour. Out of that, teachers get 30 minutes duty-free time for their lunch.
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Malena, in my former school, lunch duty was treated as an extra duty
contract item. Two teachers were interested in lunch supervision and were
paid for this duty.
----------
Our school district pays three people to cover lunch. If one is absent,
the other two do it alone. We have a 15 minute silent lunch time and a 15
minute quiet voice time. If an assistant turns the card on the table from
green to red, there is no talking. The principal sees that the cafeteria
rules are closely followed.
It is sometimes noisy, but no real problems occur. Assistants for the
lower grades do get the children through the line and settled. At times
they eat with the children, then take their own lunch break in the lounge
after the teacher picks up the students.
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At our K-5 school, teachers have a duty free lunch period (in fact, it is
part of the contract for all teachers in our district). Instructional
aides, special ed aides, and the library aide (yours truly) man the
lunchroom for 30 minutes each. If any of us are absent we always get a
substitute. At the middle and high school where my daughters
attend,teachers have 5 teaching classes a day. The school day is 8 periods
long,so for one period teachers have some sort of duty (hall duty,
lunchroom,etc.). However, they still have their 30 minute lunch period duty
free.
--------------
Paid aides cover lunch and recess. If they are out substitutes are hired.
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At my elementary school, we have had duty free lunches for teachers for a
long time. The children are supervised in lunch line, at the lunch tables
and on the playground by istructional aides, the principal and parents that
are paid for by the district (for the school their
children attend). We also have a breakfast time in the morning before
school that is covered by the same group of people. The teachers only have
recess duty.
--------------
Hi, For years we have had a contracted duty free lunch. There are aides
hired for the cafeteria and the playground. If they are absent, the district
hires subs. If there are no subs the principal covers. Rarely they have
taken the library clerk to sub there, but the teachers are guaranteed to be
duty free.
-------------
In my school classroom teachers decide whether or not they want duty free
lunch on an individual basis. The perk offered to all classroom teachers
who opt to do lunch duty is leaving 30 min earlier in the afternoon (3:00
rather than 3:30). Paraprofessionals in kindergarten and special education
usually are the ones who volunteer for lunch duty. They get to leave 30
min. early also. They are assigned on a one-per-class basis.
------------
don't know if this will help or not but this is what we do... we have a paid
position- 5 days a week...2 hours a day called noon duty...2 people ..they
supervise the lunchroom and the playground...our aides in school -we have 4
for a k-5 school -370 students-take turns by week assisting them in the
lunchroom...one week 2 aides help and the next week the other 2 help-they
rotate...the teachers in our district have never had to participate in
recess or lunch duty.
-------------
In our school district all teachers have a duty free lunch. Our union
negotiated for it years ago. Aides monitor the lunch room. At the high
school some of the teachers are a assigned a duty to monitor the halls
but we have more than one lunch period so they have a duty free lunch
during one of the lunch times. I may not be the most popular among some
of my peers for saying this but I do need a while to relax with adults
at least once a day and lunch is the only time we get. I think we are
more effective in the afternoon if we have been able to take care of
ourselves for a while in the middle of the day. We also need some time
among our peers to toss out ideas and concerns.
-------------
I work in a large elementary of about 700 students and we do have duty
free lunch. We have a staff of paid volunteers who handled the lunchroom.
Unfortunately, since the school is unwilling to pay someone to run the LC,we
are also shut down for 45 minutes of the day. Maybe you can convince your
school to work out a better way for you to have lunch. Good luck!
-------------
I'm in high school but the elementary schools hire a couple of people to
come in each day for lunch duty and pay minimum wage. They have had duty
free lunch for several years. When I was in other places they had the
teachers trade off duty times. Usually a person did 1/2 of lunch and another
person did outside for the rest of the lunch time. We only get 30 minutes
in high school and the vp's watch the kids.
-------------
I am in Hong Kong - some of the schools here have duty free lunches -
they pay people to be playground supervisors.
I pulled my children out of one of these schools partly for that reason
because there was an increasing amount of bullying and raceteering in
the playground (elementary level). The kids know the playground
supervisors do have the same authority as the teachers and behaviour
problems result. Although I hate duty as a teacher it is a good time to
mingle and be informal with alot of kids - it does have its nice side
to.
-------------
We hire lunchroom supervisors.
------------
I'm writing from a high school but the concept is the same. We have
teachers who volunteer to work lunch. In exchange they get a stipend and
their lunch for free. I would never do it, but there is a waiting list of
people who will do anything for a buck.
------------
I worked in one elem. school which had teachers rotating lunch duty so that
no one had to serve more than one day every two weeks (it was a small
school, lunch was served in two shifts, so one teacher on patrol was all it
took.)
I would be wary of using parent volunteers because of liability concerns.
In our system, only employed personnel (and that includes substitute
teachers) can be placed in charge of students.
------------
The administrators work along with the aides and security staff at our
school.
-----------
Here in Austin, TX we utilize paid lunchroom monitors
to supervise the kids. I don't know exactly how much
they get paid (I think I remember seeing $6-$8 in a
previous job posting). Some schools may also have
parents who volunteer their time. We even have some
college students who may work as monitors. Sorry I
don't have more specifics for you. Good Luck!
-----------
In our district a 30-minute duty free lunch is a contractual agreement.
Therefore, the district pays people to supervise in the lunchroom and the
playground. They even hire substitutes for the noon-duty people whenever it
is possible. (This is in the elementary where I was before going to the
middle school). Parent volunteers are nice - in Washington state they have
to be cleared by the State Patrol in order to work in any capacity in the
school - that is sometimes a long process, but at least it is good for two
years. Sometimes the noon duty people are Educational Assistants who have
that as part of their assigned duty. If the EAs are used in this way then
they have a 30-minute duty free break after the lunch break is over, having
it before tends to make it a pretty early lunch for them. I expect every
building handles it somewhat differently. At the middle school, the
principal, vice-principal, counselors, and some non-certs cover the lunch
room. We actually do have a couple of parent volunteers at the middle
school who are there two or three days a week.
If yours is a building based decision and not part of the contract, I
expect you will have to be creative in your use of EAs (Instructional
Assistants, Parapros, or whatever it is you call them.)
--------------
We have always had 30 minute duty free lunch. Any lunch supervision is done
by noncertified personnel. Recess held after lunch is also covered by
noncertified personnel. Teachers supervising lunch and recess is a very
expense duty.
--------------
We have duty free lunch at our school. The paraprofessionals cover the lunch
periods. If someone is out, the others have to double up that day. This
doesn’t happen frequently so that helps. This seems to work for us. The
teachers understand that their para will be doing this and that she must
also be allowed her 30 minutes for lunch.
-------------
Hi Malena, In one of the buildings I work in there is duty-free lunch. I
don't know why they don't in the other building. We have quite a few aides
in the building so they cover lunch and recess. Lunch and recess is done in
shifts, but the aides stay with specific classes for lunch and then recess
and some do recess then lunch. Sometimes there are parent volunteers that
help out in the cafeteria. If they are absent there is typically a sub who
comes in and covers their day. Hope this helps!
-------------
We have a duty-free lunch. Our school has 320 kids in K-5, but the K's are
half-day, so it's about 280 kids for lunch. They are divided in half - half
at recess, half at lunch. The program is run by aides. These are full-time
classroom aides in our building. For the most part, they provide in-class
support for classified children. They stay with the same group of kids for
lunch and recess, so they on good days they're inside for half an hour and
outside for half an hour. They all have their own lunch together for one
hour after the kids' lunch. (This means that the classroom teachers do not
have aides from 12:45 - 1:45 p.m.) The principal is ALWAYS on lunch and
recess duty for the hour. He is clearly visible indoors and out. He also
runs orientations for the aides several times during the school year about
how to handle different situations during the lunch hour. If the principal
is absent, the lead teacher takes over at lunch.
------------
Duty-free lunch is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I am
personally involved. In order for the classroom teachers to have a
duty-free lunch, the "special" teachers are assigned to this duty. This
includes the art, music, phys ed, and oh, yes, librarians. Because we all
have a schedule down on paper, it is very easy for .the principal to just
write it in. I have the full duty period of 50 minutes for the first lunch
every day, then I eat my own lunch, which is duty-free. On inclement
weather days, the children are kept inside the cafeteria for the full time
instead of going out. In the past, they used to go back to the classroom,
where each of the four duty aides would watch one class, the duty teacher
would patrol the hall outside the rooms to troubleshoot and the remaining
classes would be watched by their teachers. The teachers would be
compensated for this 15 minutes by being paid 1/4 of their hourly wage,based
on their step on the salary guide. It was a complicated formula which our
association figured out. This practice is still followed in some of our
elementary schools, but our principal takes the money budgeted for this and
spends it on other areas, thus creating a massive babysitting problem for
the duty teacher and the four duty aides!
This is how it is handled in my school district.. I don't know if you
would want to suggest this, as I'm sure you wouldn't want it written into
your schedule. I could obviously use the time more wisely having the
library open during this time, but my principal isn't interested in hearing
this.
----------------
In the schools I've worked in (2 different states), we
always had/have a duty-free lunch. Lunch duty was
always covered by the principal or asst. principal.
Some schools had assistants help out but I believe a
certified person had to be present which is why an
administrator was always there. Sometimes parent
volunteers helped out but they weren't scheduled there
since it's hard to count on volunteers.
---------------
I teach middle school. We have mentors that handle the lunchroom. It
gives them time to talk to the student and observe them in a different
setting. However, there is always at least one or two of us around. We
rotate (weekly or monthly) so that there is always at least one or two
teachers in the lunchroom to handle major things. Kids seem to do better
when a teacher is around rather than an aid or etc.
---------------
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