Public Comments for: HB583 - Public elementary school teachers; length of daily lunch breaks.
Last Name: Dilday Locality: Chesterfield

I watched this bill die in committee last year. I watched organizations like that School Board Association and Superintendent Association speak against it. It was then that I understood that they are organizations that put the business of running a school before the task if educating children. They cited scheduling and staffing issues. As a veteran teacher of 22 years, I started when it was already hard in Virginia. Older colleagues blamed the onslaught of testing due to NCLB and lack of autonomy, they retired during the Great Recession. I carried on. Threats of a looming teacher shortage began. I carried on. Pay still didn't increase much for a decade, save a bonus or 1-2% here or there, eaten by rising health care, housing, or child care costs. I carried on. The pandemic hit and there is still a wake of effects. I carry on. Now, I don't just have larger class sizes...we have students that are severely behind, parental involvement that swings from non-existent to snowplowing through curriculum and classroom libraries, and adults in classrooms that though caring, are utterly unqualified adults leading classrooms, pressuring licensed or tenured teachers in the role of uncompensated on-the -ob trainer, and so much more! This bill should be viewed as a teacher retention bill. Personally, I already only have 25 mins in my schedule for lunch. After, supervising behavior in line and making my way to an adult bathroom and grab my lunch it's really 15 min, before I have to be back to pick up my class. And, truthfully, it is too short for students. Some are still carrying food items back with them that they didn't finish. I give an additional 5 mins of talk time after returning because they haven't met that social need. Please consider this bill. It is important for staff and student mental health. It is important for retention- it is important to feel treated like a professional that can go to the bathroom, heat a 4 min frozen meal, and enjoy it with colleagues.

Last Name: Peters Organization: Virginia Professional Educators Locality: Chester

HB583 addresses concerns that many of our members who are Elementary teachers have brought to our attention over several years. Therefore, we strongly support HB583.

Last Name: Campbell Organization: Fairfax County Special Education PTA Locality: Fairfax County

Fairfax County Special Education PTA supports this bill. One of the major factors in special education teacher attrition is the lack of planning and lunchtime - especially for teachers teaching in self-contained settings where there are often multiple grade levels being taught at the same time. For example, in elementary school teachers often get their planning time while their classes are at their "specials" classes (music/art/pe,etc) - and they eat lunch at the same time as their students. For self-contained teachers teaching multiple grade levels, especially those who have K-6 all in one classroom, when one grade level is at specials and/or lunch, they still have another grade level to teach in their classroom. There's never a time when they don't have students in their room for academics. School divisions must be required to identify this need and plan accordingly to ensure that these teachers have the same lunch and planning time as their general education counterparts. This is an important part of special education teacher retention and recruitment, in light of the nationwide staffing crisis. Thank you.

Last Name: Alexander Organization: Virginia PTA Locality: Virginia

Support. Addressing the teacher shortage is going to take more than just a salary increase. A 30-minute lunch break is expected in any other employment and should be provided for our teachers as well. However, this also means that our schools need to be adequately staffed so that providing a basic work break doesn’t create a need for daily “volunteer-staffing”.

Last Name: Barton-Arnold Organization: Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals Locality: Virginia Beach

Good afternoon, my name is Krista Arnold and I am the Executive Director of the Virginia Association of Elementary Principals. We currently have 1000 members. In theory, we wholeheartedly agree with the concept of a 30 minute duty free lunch for all elementary teachers. Unfortunately, in practice, a 30 minute unencumbered lunch is not feasible due to the lack of staffing in many of our schools.

Last Name: Laws Organization: Virginia Coalition for Fine Arts Education Locality: Norfolk

The Virginia Coalition for Fine Arts Education supports HB 583 bill in its intent but would recommend the following additions: ‘Elementary teachers’ are defined to include art, music, and physical education teachers. ‘Thirty minutes planning time’ is defined as a contiguous duty-free period.

End of Comments