In a rare move, the Bermuda Union of Teachers will call a meeting of its membership this month.

BUT president Michael Charles told The Royal Gazette the union did not normally meet during the summer, but teachers needed to meet before the beginning of the school year which will include major education changes.

The union has complained that teachers have been left out of the restructuring process for too long, were feeling vulnerable to school violence, and stretched beyond their limits due to inadequate resources and training.

Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher has denied such claims.

The union has also expressed concern about whether school buildings will be ready for the new school year next month.

In addition to regular maintenance work, Government is renovating several of its schools as part of education reform.

Sandys Secondary, Warwick Secondary, Dellwood, St. George's Secondary, and Whitney Institute are being converted to middle schools. They will be known as the middle school at Sandys, Spice Valley Middle School, Dellwood Middle School, and Clearwater Middle School, respectively. Whitney will not be changing its name.

Government is also converting Northlands to a primary school and finishing work on CedarBridge Academy, its new senior secondary school at Prospect.

Work on the middle schools, which began this summer, are expected to be phased in. And CedarBridge officials have moved into the facility this week while work continues.

Noting that the union was concerned about the safety of students attending schools where work was expected to continue into the new school year, Mr.

Charles said: "We want the minimum of disruption when the kids go back.

"If it is something that's going to cause a lot of disruption, they (Government) might as well wait a couple of weeks and get it done.

"We said way back in April and May, the things they want to have done can't be done in that time (during summer). We talked about this delayed opening for sometime. But of course as usual it fell on deaf ears on their part.'' But Education Minister Jerome Dill has given his assurance that the schools will be "ready, safe and secure environments conducive to learning.

"That is something which we have made as commitment to see to and we will certainly stick to that commitment,'' he said.

"If they were not going to be conducive to learning, we would not be proceeding as we are.'' Schools such as Whitney and Clearwater did not require major work to be converted to middle schools this summer, he added. But Sandys Secondary and Dellwood required "a great deal of work to be done''.

"They're on a five-year schedule,'' Mr. Dill said. "Work is on schedule and those schools will be open in September.'' Internal work expected to be completed on Spice Valley by next month including the completion of interior and exterior painting, renovations to the design and technology rooms, renovations to information technology rooms, creation of a cafeteria, minor works in several support services area, and the finishing of corridors and stairwell floors.

Major work on making Dellwood the only fully-accessible middle school was also expected to be completed by September.

Mr. Dill said it was essential that the interior work was done at schools because "clearly that's where the kids are going to spending a great deal of time''.

And he stressed that students "could not'' and "would not'' be exposed to unsafe environments.

"That's why when we've actually planned the phasing of the work,'' he said.

"We have dealt with those issues which will ensure safety and security and an environment which is conducive to learning first.'' The membership meeting is expected to be held on August 28.