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South San AFT urges board to formalize eight-hour teacher workday, presents petition with 165 signatures
Summary
A representative of South San AFT told the board teachers are routinely working nine to 14 hours and asked the district to formalize an eight-hour day and enforce policies requiring reassignment of non-instructional tasks.
Tom Cummins, representing South San AFT, told the South San Antonio ISD board on Sept. 15 that many teachers are working significantly beyond the established work day and urged the board to act.
Cummins said teachers are facing excessive lesson-plan demands, loss of a 45-minute planning period, an extended work day to eight-and-a-half hours and a rise in non-instructional paperwork. He said the union has gathered 165 petition signatures from teachers requesting a formal return to an eight-hour workday.
"In reality, teachers are working nine to 11 hours on campus and sometimes up to 14," Cummins said during the public-comment period. He described the fallout: difficulties for parents with childcare, teachers missing appointments, and rising exhaustion and burnout.
Cummins asked the board to take two actions: (1) formally establish an eight-hour workday in district policy, and (2) enforce policy BAA and DLB so paperwork and ancillary tasks are reviewed and reassigned to non-instructional personnel where appropriate.
He told trustees the extension of duties had not followed the district's policy BAA decision-making process and that teachers felt the change was imposed without required campus- and district-level review.
Superintendent Dr. Hinojosa told the board he would discuss the concerns with Cummins and staff, and trustees acknowledged the issue as urgent. No formal action was taken during the meeting, but trustees said they would follow up with administration to review the petition and the cited policies.
Cummins concluded by saying the union will continue to collect signatures but will not publish individual names to protect teachers from potential retaliation.
