TT trying to eliminate open lunch

[Anonymous]

I'm fine with open or closed lunch, and I don't particularly see any absolutely reason to against closed lunch. However, I'm fully against this process that only demonstrates nothing more than monarchy, again and again and again!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:He won't be able to, kids will revolt. There is literally no space for every high schooler to eat inside, unless you want to do it East Asian style, where every kid eats at his desk!

How tiny are HS cafeterias that they can't fit 400ish kids at a time?

Let's do the math which is not mcps' forte:
2400 kids +/-
And you want 400 kids per lunch period?
That's lunch spread over 6 periods.
So, students should get a lunch period at 2nd period which starts before 9am?

WJ has about 3000 so more like 7 periods.

WJ is having a reduction in students.

But not next year, which is what’s under discussion. The transition to Woodward will be somewhat incremental as they will not move seniors and maybe not juniors. I think it would make sense for WJ admin to revisit this in three or four years, when they will have a better sense of what the impact of the Woodward transition will be.
There will be impact on class scheduling as well as crowd capacity so many things will need to be reviewed. Pushing this now at this moment is premature and really just f— the kids for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why we would want a one-size-fits-all policy. This can be handled at the school level. And I am hearing that Taylor is pushing for multiple lunch periods at all schools, which really concerns me — that would make it really hard to hold clubs during lunch and would mean that some teachers aren’t available for make-up work and support. My kid depends on that for his extended time
accommodation.

Yes it makes the extended time almost impossible and makes it much more difficult for kids to take a variety of different level classes. It has a lot of impact on ability or provide an appropriate and flexible education and Taylor is ignoring the input of those with boots on the ground in these schools.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So this is my perception of the issue.

People who want to preserve open lunch in the schools that have it:
-principals
-teachers
-parents
-students
-most nearby food business owners

People who want to end open lunch :
-Brenda Wolff
-Natalie Zimmerman
-Thomas Taylor
-a few local business owners
-a few whiny karens who hate teens but also chose to live right by a high school.

Seems to me that all the people who want to end open lunch are not the actual individuals who participate in open lunch and/or spend time in our school buildings, but want to make decisions for others.

Keep dreaming, Deatrice.

There are parents, students and teachers on both sides of the issue.

I know you're crapping bricks because you're about to lose open lunch, but don't make things up just to make yourself feel or look better.

Find me one student currently at an open lunch school who wants their school to lose that privilege.

There are many kids who don't like the safety issues that come with Open Lunch. You just don't bother to listen to them.

I would totally listen to them if they existed but you made them up in your imagination. Just as you made up this new narrative that there are safety issues that exist because of open lunch and that schools with closed lunch are safer in some measurable way.

No, I didn't make them up.

Many kids don't like to go out for Open Lunch due to the crowds, fights and bad behaviors that happen during Open Lunch. Some of that is because those kids are more introverted and/or shy and some of that is because their parents warn them about such things. Especially if your child is of an immigrant background.

You are showing your white, liberal bias and the fact that you can't imagine some students preferring closed lunch, even though there are children who eat in the cafeterias in schools with Open Lunch everyday, says more about you than the kids you claim don't exist.

You just keep making up more and more things. If kids don’t want to leave for open lunch, they can stay inside! Many do!

And it’s appalling that you made a racial assumption about me based on nothing, weaponized your assumption in a derogatory way, and spoke for all introverts and children of immigrants as though they are a monolith.

So you admit there are already kids who don't go out during Open Lunch and therefore would not be opposed to ending the Open Lunch policy?

I said nothing of the sort. I said if there are kids who wish to eat inside, they have that option. I did not say that kids who choose to eat inside the building would want to end the option for open lunch. I don’t think that’s true at all. I have a kid in an open lunch school who goes out maybe once a month, but is a huge proponent of keeping the privilege/option.

You are tying yourself up in knots like a pretzel.

You made the claim that ALL students want to keep open lunch. I challenged you on that absolutist claim as there are indeed kids who would be fine with MCPS ending open lunch, as evidenced by the fact that many kids already make the decision to operate under a closed lunch model by not leaving the school during the lunch period.

You argued that was a lie.

Parents, students and teachers are a monolith on nothing when it comes to MCPS. There are people on both sides of every debate. That you pretend otherwise makes you disingenuous in your argument.

You are the one being a pretzel and moving goalposts. You said that the kids who stay at school for open lunch would support/prefer a closed lunch policy. Now you’re saying you’re right because they’d “be fine with it” or don’t care. Those are actually different things and you’re the one who has changed your argument.

You are being really weird about this. There are 3000 kids at WJ so of course you can find one or two kids for any position. But the vast vast majority of them strongly support open lunch and say it is important for their academic work, extracurricular endeavors and mental health.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this has been posted. It's helpful: "Why does the Board want to give up their power over open lunch"

https://noraegordon.substack.com/p/why-does-the-board-want-to-give-up?shem=rimspwouoe%2C

[Anonymous]

I just watched the policy management committee on open lunch. Anuva Maloo is awful, doing a disservice to students and supporting an expedited process to remove the board's authority and effectively end open lunch. Embarrassing that she was the second for that motion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this has been posted. It's helpful: "Why does the Board want to give up their power over open lunch"

https://noraegordon.substack.com/p/why-does-the-board-want-to-give-up?shem=rimspwouoe%2C

This is amazing and I want the writer to run for BOE!

[Anonymous]

There is so much wrong with this policy change while schools are as overcrowded as they are right now. But, even worse, why are they rushing this for next year?

[Anonymous]

This thread should be split int 2. Some are arguing only against closed lunches and others are arguing against multiple lunches. These are not one in the same!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread should be split int 2. Some are arguing only against closed lunches and others are arguing against multiple lunches. These are not one and the same!

They are tied together. Taylor is going to both get rid of open lunch and mandate multiple lunch periods to do that. It means that schools even now with closed lunch and a single lunch period will lose. My biggest concern is how my kid is going to be able to get the extended time accommodation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread should be split int 2. Some are arguing only against closed lunches and others are arguing against multiple lunches. These are not one and the same!

They are tied together. Taylor is going to both get rid of open lunch and mandate multiple lunch periods to do that. It means that schools even now with closed lunch and a single lunch period will lose. My biggest concern is how my kid is going to be able to get the extended time accommodation.

In what future career will your kid have the extended time accommodation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this has been posted. It's helpful: "Why does the Board want to give up their power over open lunch"

https://noraegordon.substack.com/p/why-does-the-board-want-to-give-up?shem=rimspwouoe%2C

This is amazing and I want the writer to run for BOE!

Agree. Love her bio.

MCPS parent, economist, and Georgetown professor asking questions that matter about public education. Likes kids, democracy, and fact-checking. Dislikes jargon, propaganda, and web portals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:This thread should be split int 2. Some are arguing only against closed lunches and others are arguing against multiple lunches. These are not one and the same!

They are tied together. Taylor is going to both get rid of open lunch and mandate multiple lunch periods to do that. It means that schools even now with closed lunch and a single lunch period will lose. My biggest concern is how my kid is going to be able to get the extended time accommodation.

In what future career will your kid have the extended time accommodation?

What? My kid has a disability and is entitled to extended time. That has nothing to do with a future career. My kid is in high school, lady.

[Anonymous]

I'm really impressed with how the BCC community rallied for tomorrow's Board meeting -- looks like a good number of students and parents are testifying.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Where does he propose the nearly 3000 kids eat at WJ?

There will be much less soon. Our kids eat in the halls, classrooms, etc.

Soon isn’t next year. And no, they should not have to sit in the floor in the hall or use teacher’s classrooms. At the very least upperclassmen should be able to leave for lunch.

Wootton that has always had closed lunches. Kids sit in halls. It’s sucks. Never was even allowed to eat outside on bleachers. After the shooting, they were packed in like sardines in 4 locations only and can’t even go outside to courtyards or inside in any classrooms. Security takes away parking permits even if they just hang out by their car, kids get detentions for sitting on the floor in a hallway “not allowed” for lunch. It’s been like a prison. It’s been a terrible year at that school.

If they want closed lunches, they need to have various periods for lunch - not one where thousands of students have no where to go or eat.