Education

Measure To Make School Lunch Workers Full-time Government Employees Passes Senate

ST. THOMAS -- Senator Kurt Vialet has been advocating for school lunch workers ever since becoming a lawmaker. In April, Vialet told The Consortium that workers who have been receiving part-time salaries because they are limited to work only 6.5 hours a day, will become full-time employees in the incoming school year. The confirmation came following a discussion Vialet had with Governor Kenneth Mapp during a meeting the same month. The former educator said he raised the topic for discussion and not only did Mapp agree, the governor said he “will be moving, effective the next school year (August, 2015), to make sure that those employees become full-time members of the government of the Virgin Islands,” Vialet said. And at an all-day Senate session that went into the early hours of Thursday morning, Vialet mentioned that $1.2 million was added through an amendment to the government's Fiscal Year 2016 budget, "to make that entire school lunch program becomes whole (instead of part-ti...