Which districts/schools are having outdoor lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our elementary principal in LCPS sent an email indicating they will split the classes between cafeteria and classroom, so half of each class eats in each for spacing. The teachers will rotate so all kids get to eat in both locations.

How in the world are they staffing this? We can barely get enough cafeteria monitors in a normal year. Teachers get a duty-free lunch.

[Anonymous]

Looks like some schools in APS will have outdoor lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not easy to hire people to work a few hours in the middle of the day.

This. With covid it’s an even less appealing job. They used extended day staff last year but they are needed back in extended day now.

I honestly think PTA could staff it with volunteer parents. Many of us are still working remotely and don’t mind running over to monitor lunch for an hour once a week if it means safer lunches, which increases the chance of school staying open.

Not every school has access to parents who are able to volunteer like that.

[Anonymous]

FCPS will vary across the schools. For example, at our school I believe kindergarten will eat in their classrooms and grades 1-6 in the cafeteria one grade level at a time. I'll know more after staff meetings next week, I'm sure.

Why Will Lunch Look Different at Every School?
The size of every school cafeteria is different and the number of students at each school is different. Because most students (99.5%) will be back for in-person learning, social distancing will not be possible in most classrooms, hallways or cafeterias.
The physical layout of each cafeteria varies from school to school depending on size and student enrollment.
Some schools (but not all) will have outdoor cafeteria spaces or options. These will be used on days when the weather is good.
Students will not be required to face the same direction when eating lunch, as was the requirement last year. This kind of layout will simply not allow most cafeterias to accommodate all students without disrupting normal operations.
Physical distancing will not be possible in all circumstances when we return 99.5% of all students to school buildings. This includes some cafeterias. Schools will do their best to physically distance where space allows and when it does not disrupt normal operations

[Anonymous]

They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Is the major concern spacing or cohorting? At my school the cafeteria has much more space for distancing than classrooms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

They can figure it out. I’m a teacher. There are plenty of assistants, resource teachers, administrators, and yes- Extended Day. I’d do a rotating lunch shift, especially if another responsibility was removed elsewhere. Some of these people go in on the morning, and come back after school. They’d probably love to have two shifts closer together- morning and lunch, or lunch and after school. It may mean paying them or hiring more folks. They got a lot of CoVID $$$ and they need to figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS will vary across the schools. For example, at our school I believe kindergarten will eat in their classrooms and grades 1-6 in the cafeteria one grade level at a time. I'll know more after staff meetings next week, I'm sure.

Why Will Lunch Look Different at Every School?
The size of every school cafeteria is different and the number of students at each school is different. Because most students (99.5%) will be back for in-person learning, social distancing will not be possible in most classrooms, hallways or cafeterias.
The physical layout of each cafeteria varies from school to school depending on size and student enrollment.
Some schools (but not all) will have outdoor cafeteria spaces or options. These will be used on days when the weather is good.
Students will not be required to face the same direction when eating lunch, as was the requirement last year. This kind of layout will simply not allow most cafeterias to accommodate all students without disrupting normal operations.
Physical distancing will not be possible in all circumstances when we return 99.5% of all students to school buildings. This includes some cafeterias. Schools will do their best to physically distance where space allows and when it does not disrupt normal operations

At our school lunch will be as normal in the cafeteria. There is not a lot of space outside the school. We don’t even have a decent parking lot and I can see why they can’t line up kids on the sidewalk next to streets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

They can figure it out. I’m a teacher. There are plenty of assistants, resource teachers, administrators, and yes- Extended Day. I’d do a rotating lunch shift, especially if another responsibility was removed elsewhere. Some of these people go in on the morning, and come back after school. They’d probably love to have two shifts closer together- morning and lunch, or lunch and after school. It may mean paying them or hiring more folks. They got a lot of CoVID $$$ and they need to figure it out.

I’m trying to have this work for us. We want to stay OPEN. Having a bunch of unvaccinated kids eating together in a cafeteria is absolutely stupid- AND I don’t want my kids getting sick. Then, you’re down a teacher. Writing good sub plans is horrible when you’re sick or taking care of sick kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Is the major concern spacing or cohorting? At my school the cafeteria has much more space for distancing than classrooms

Spacing. At our elementary schools, they’ve got kids eating at 10 AM because there are so many of them and they need to pack them in there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

They can figure it out. I’m a teacher. There are plenty of assistants, resource teachers, administrators, and yes- Extended Day. I’d do a rotating lunch shift, especially if another responsibility was removed elsewhere. Some of these people go in on the morning, and come back after school. They’d probably love to have two shifts closer together- morning and lunch, or lunch and after school. It may mean paying them or hiring more folks. They got a lot of CoVID $$$ and they need to figure it out.

I’m trying to have this work for us. We want to stay OPEN. Having a bunch of unvaccinated kids eating together in a cafeteria is absolutely stupid- AND I don’t want my kids getting sick. Then, you’re down a teacher. Writing good sub plans is horrible when you’re sick or taking care of sick kids.

I’d rather do a lunch shift or two than deal with the mayhem that will ensue after a cafeteria super spreader event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

They can figure it out. I’m a teacher. There are plenty of assistants, resource teachers, administrators, and yes- Extended Day. I’d do a rotating lunch shift, especially if another responsibility was removed elsewhere. Some of these people go in on the morning, and come back after school. They’d probably love to have two shifts closer together- morning and lunch, or lunch and after school. It may mean paying them or hiring more folks. They got a lot of CoVID $$$ and they need to figure it out.

Shrug. I just don’t see them doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

They can figure it out. I’m a teacher. There are plenty of assistants, resource teachers, administrators, and yes- Extended Day. I’d do a rotating lunch shift, especially if another responsibility was removed elsewhere. Some of these people go in on the morning, and come back after school. They’d probably love to have two shifts closer together- morning and lunch, or lunch and after school. It may mean paying them or hiring more folks. They got a lot of CoVID $$$ and they need to figure it out.

At my school all of those people are on recess duty or taking their own lunch at that time so they would need to hire more people. Considering how many vacancies we have 2 weeks before school starts that seems unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’ve got to do something about elementary lunch. We haven’t eaten inside at a restaurant but a handful of times- especially not now. At least have them eat in the rooms with just their class!

I cannot stand the foolishness of opening full-time and then doing this. It’s a recipe for shutting down again.

Well they just don’t have the staff to in your words “do something” about lunch so you may as well get over it now.

They can figure it out. I’m a teacher. There are plenty of assistants, resource teachers, administrators, and yes- Extended Day. I’d do a rotating lunch shift, especially if another responsibility was removed elsewhere. Some of these people go in on the morning, and come back after school. They’d probably love to have two shifts closer together- morning and lunch, or lunch and after school. It may mean paying them or hiring more folks. They got a lot of CoVID $$$ and they need to figure it out.

At my school all of those people are on recess duty or taking their own lunch at that time so they would need to hire more people. Considering how many vacancies we have 2 weeks before school starts that seems unlikely.

I'm a DCPS teacher and parent but I wandered in here to see what other districts are doing. I agree with PP that there are a lot of staff vacancies. In my school we have 2 open Homeroom positions (K and 1,) 4th and 5th grade SPED positions, OT, and 3 para positions open. Teachers go back this Friday. Kids start on 8/30.