08/14/2026
To the LCTA Bargaining Unit:
As we finish our first week with students, THANK YOU.
The beginning of a school year asks a great deal of everyone. Educators solve problems all day long. Administrators solve problems all day long. Schedules change, students need help, staffing is imperfect, and sometimes everyone does a little more to make sure children are safe and supported.
That is who we are.
But being a team player and having contractual rights are not competing ideas.
You can care deeply about your students, support your colleagues, help your administrator solve a problem, and still expect the collective bargaining agreement to be followed.
YOUR RIGHT TO A DUTY-FREE LUNCH
We have received reports from several worksites regarding duty-free lunch during the opening days of school. LCTA has been working directly with LCS to address those concerns consistently and collaboratively.
Here is the contract standard you should know: Article 7 — Assignments and Working Conditions
On student days, bargaining-unit employees are provided a duty-free lunch equal to the student lunch period.
If an employee volunteers for lunch duty, an equal duty-free period is to be provided.
Article 7 also governs other important pieces of your workday, including planning, meetings, assignments, and working conditions.
Our contract operating materials also identify a one-hour duty-free lunch on planning days.
What does duty-free mean?
If you remain responsible for supervising students, escorting students, assisting students through the lunch line, monitoring behavior, or performing another required assignment, you are performing work.
We recognize that this can be particularly challenging at elementary schools. Younger students need greater assistance and supervision. That is a legitimate operational challenge.
But an operational challenge does not change the words of the agreement.
If an educator is required to perform work that displaces their contractual duty-free lunch, LCTA's position is that the required work must be addressed appropriately, including compensation at the applicable hourly rate where appropriate. Our larger goal, however, is not simply to turn lunch into another paid assignment. It is to make sure schedules are developed so educators receive the duty-free period that was negotiated.
For our counselors, social workers, psychologists, therapists, media specialists, and other non-classroom instructional employees: you are not excluded simply because your schedule looks different. Bargaining-unit classifications are covered by the agreement, and employees should have a duty-free lunch reflected in their workday.
VOLUNTARY MEANS VOLUNTARY
There will be employees who want to volunteer to help.
There is nothing wrong with that.
There will also be employees who choose to exercise their contractual right to a duty-free lunch.
There is nothing wrong with that either.
Choosing to exercise a negotiated right does not make someone less professional, less collegial, less committed to students, or less of a team player.
No employee should be subjected to condescending comments, negative characterizations, or undesirable duties because they chose to exercise a right contained in the agreement.
At the same time, we ask everyone to handle concerns professionally. Our goal is not confrontation. It is understanding and problem-solving.
IF THERE IS A PROBLEM, START WITH THE SOLUTION
If your lunch is not duty-free:
Ask whether the assignment is required or voluntary.
If it is required, ask that the direction and how the time will be addressed be confirmed.
Keep your schedule and note the date and amount of lunch time that was interrupted or lost.
Do not put student safety at risk to make a point. If you are directed to supervise students, fulfill the immediate responsibility, document what occurred, and then address the contractual concern.
Talk with your administrator professionally. A simple question may resolve the issue.
If it is not resolved, contact your LCTA building representative or LCTA if you are an LCTA member.
Try:
“I want to make sure I understand the expectation. Article 7 provides a duty-free lunch equal to the student lunch period. Is this assignment required or voluntary, and how will my duty-free lunch be provided?”
That is professional advocacy.
It is not insubordination.
It is not refusing to help children.
It is not an “I got you.”
It is using the process we all agreed upon.
WHY DOES LCTA HAVE TO ADDRESS SOMETHING THIS SMALL?
Because there really are no “small” provisions of a contract.
Think about building a house.
The owner and builder agree to plans, specifications, costs, and responsibilities before construction begins. Halfway through the project, one side may discover that something in those plans is inconvenient or difficult to implement.
There may even be a very good reason to change it.
But one party cannot simply say, “This would work better for us,” and change the agreement.
The parties discuss the problem. They determine a solution. Then they agree to the change.
That is how a contract maintains its value.
Our agreement provides exactly that structure.
Article 24 — Maintenance of Standards helps prevent existing benefits, standards, and working conditions from quietly disappearing.
And Article 27 — Totality of Agreement, Amendment and Duration is equally important. Our current contract guide summarizes the principle clearly: no side deals, no verbal changes, and no quiet overrides. Changes to the agreement must go through the appropriate written and ratification process.
That protects both sides.
Because if one provision can simply be changed because it is inconvenient, why couldn't the same thing happen to:
your planning time;
your workday;
meeting limits;
extra-duty compensation;
class-load processes;
leave;
supplements;
evaluation procedures;
representation and due process;
transfer and vacancy rights;
student safety protections; or
the grievance process?
Those protections exist because educators and LCS negotiated shared standards over many years. Our contract turns individual workplace problems into rules that apply consistently across the bargaining unit.
Making the contract meaningful means following it when it is convenient—and when it is inconvenient.
When language no longer works, we bargain better language.
AND THERE IS A BIGGER REASON TO KNOW YOUR CONTRACT
Florida changed its public-sector union certification law effective July 1, 2026. For non-public-safety bargaining units such as ours, a recertification election requires participation by at least 50% of the bargaining unit and support from at least 50% of those participating for an employee organization to be certified or recertified.
Why does that matter?
Because Florida law gives a certified bargaining agent the legal role of bargaining with the public employer over wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment. The grievance procedure used to interpret and enforce a collective bargaining agreement is likewise something negotiated between the public employer and bargaining agent.
This is not a claim that every employment right would vanish overnight if certification were ever lost. Some employee protections come from state or federal law, Board policy, individual employment rights, or other sources, and the precise legal consequences for an existing agreement depend on the circumstances and timing.
But we should understand what is at stake.
The contract does not magically recreate itself.
The contract does not automatically transfer to another organization.
And negotiated protections are not guaranteed forever simply because we have them today. Our own previous member materials correctly identified that maintaining certification and participation is what allows collective bargaining protections to continue into the future.
That is why membership and participation matter.
Not because LCTA is asking you to choose between your union and your school.
There should be no such choice.
We want excellent principals.
We want supported educators.
We want strong schools.
We want families to trust their public schools.
And, above everything else, we want children to have great educators who can build meaningful careers in Leon County.
A strong agreement helps make that possible.
KNOW IT. USE IT. PROTECT IT. IMPROVE IT.
Our responsibility is not merely to have a contract sitting online somewhere.
We have to make it usable.
When the language works, we follow it.
When there is confusion, we clarify it.
When there is a violation, we first try to solve it.
When language creates an unintended operational problem, LCS and LCTA have a process to negotiate a better solution.
And when the agreement needs to change, we change it together.
That is collective bargaining.
That is professionalism.
And that is how we make sure the promises we negotiate on paper actually mean something in the lives of the educators and students we serve.
I am. A professional whose time, work, and voice have value.
I can. Know my agreement, ask questions, document concerns, and help solve problems.
I will. Protect the standards educators before me built and help improve them for the educators who come next.
We are all here for our students.
And we can serve them best when the professionals who serve them have clear expectations, meaningful protections, mutual respect, and a voice in their profession.
In unity and service,
Leon Classroom Teachers Association
Join: https://feacms.floridaea.org/portal/fasttrack/217/form
