It took six years, but the California Federation of Teachers last fall finally won passage of a bill that will bring greater recognition and better benefits to playground supervisors.

Before the bill was passed, part-time playground supervisors were exempt from classified service. That meant that someone might hold two part-time jobs in a school, totaling 20 hours a week, but if some of those were as a playground supervisor, the hours didn't count toward the weekly total. And when it often takes 20 hours to qualify for key benefits such as health insurance, many playground supervisors found themselves shortchanged.

Under the new law, which went into effect Jan. 1, employees can now include those hours of playground service in their overall classified service if they already work in another classified position in the district.

Although it's not explicitly spelled out in the law, the change should help upgrade the status of playground supervisors, who provide vital but often overlooked services. "I think this law will encourage more people to stay in this position longer," says Molly Elie, a Santa Cruz classified worker who testified in favor of the bill before state legislative committees. "They are going to feel better recognized, and that's important. Plus they can get benefits anywhere in the state."

In addition to their playground duty, which might involve two or three staff supervising more than 200 active students at a time, the employees have other important roles. Those might include traffic control, cafeteria duty and escorting students to school buses. "There are safety issues involved where you really have to be careful," Elie says. "It's not the kind of job everyone wants, but it can be very rewarding."

Another useful provision in the new law prohibits school districts, in implementing the law, from reducing the hours of, or terminating, a classified employee assigned to a part-time position.

Gaining passage of the playground supervisor law was a testament to the persistence of the CFT lobbyists. The Legislature considered the bill six times over the past six years, and five times it made it to the desks of two different governors before Gov. Gray Davis finally signed it. Democratic Assemblyman Carl Washington sponsored the legislation four times, which helped earn him the CFT's 2001 Legislator of the Year award.