TT trying to eliminate open lunch

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Growing up in another country, all of us students carried our lunch in bento boxes our moms packed for us, and we ate at our desk in the classroom.

Why can't school kids do the same here. Those who get their lunch boxes need to sit in the classroom and eat there. The rest who buy lunch can go in the cafeteria. Or bring their own bento boxes, buy food and take it to their classrooms.

Or rotate the lunch period.

How terribly are these schools run.

Why are we changing something that isn’t broken?

9/11 local businesses surrounding schools with open lunch said that they experience no issues with student conduct and that they appreciate the business students bring.

If you want your kids to attend a school with closed lunch, send them there instead of forcing others to adopt your policy for 0 reason.

For one of the most educated counties in this country, so many posters on this site are dense in the head.

Something that’s not broken? My kids school is closed lunch, ONE period and they can’t even go outside. It’s not broken for YOU. It should be the same across the board.

You realize that if they had voted to rescind the current policy, the “same across the board” would have been closed lunch for everyone, right? If you want your kids’ school to have open lunch, mobilize your community to petition the principal to allow for open lunch. Lucky for you, that’s still an option after tonight’s votes.

No, the PP is right. It should be open for all schools or closed with multiple periods to address crowding. Letting principals decide is ridiculous.

Can you explain why it’s ridiculous? How does one school’s open/closed lunch affect other schools? Are there resources taken away from a school with closed lunch so another school can have open lunch?

It further reinforces the classism in MCPS.

Our “classist” Bethesda school (WJ) has 3k students in a bldg built for 2k. Until Woodward opens, it would be a safety hazard for our school to have closed lunch right now.

What hazard exists at lunch time that does not exist the rest of the day? I am not actually opposed to open lunch but I do not think your reasoning makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Very few schools have open lunch and a lot of it has to do with traffic in the area and the safety of the kids.

[Anonymous]

So.....what ended up happening with the idea of having closed lunch at all of the 26 high schools? Did they ever say WHY the idea of closed lunch was brought up? Was it really because of declining school lunch sales?

[Anonymous]

They just delayed the vote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So.....what ended up happening with the idea of having closed lunch at all of the 26 high schools? Did they ever say WHY the idea of closed lunch was brought up? Was it really because of declining school lunch sales?

Did you read this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They just delayed the vote

That’s not true. They did actually vote but because they got all twisted up in the details and couldn’t reach consensus, all the votes failed and the existing policy on the books is unchanged.

[Anonymous]

TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

Where did he say this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

That’s not for next year. And I wish him luck with this. There are so many unique schedule days that I don’t think this is practical. For just the testing month alone, there were different schedules for the MISA day vs the NSL day vs the MCAP day and so on and so forth. Those are on different days at different high schools. Not to mention advisory days, pep rally days, days with assembly/guests, half days, conferences. And days where the HVAC breaks, pipes burst, etc. Schools also have different sized cafeteria capacity and different enrollment numbers. This is another one of his half baked ideas that is going to have little to no upshot and big downsides (clubs meeting at lunch, extended time accommodations, ease of master scheduling).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

That’s not for next year. And I wish him luck with this. There are so many unique schedule days that I don’t think this is practical. For just the testing month alone, there were different schedules for the MISA day vs the NSL day vs the MCAP day and so on and so forth. Those are on different days at different high schools. Not to mention advisory days, pep rally days, days with assembly/guests, half days, conferences. And days where the HVAC breaks, pipes burst, etc. Schools also have different sized cafeteria capacity and different enrollment numbers. This is another one of his half baked ideas that is going to have little to no upshot and big downsides (clubs meeting at lunch, extended time accommodations, ease of master scheduling).

It's such a terrible idea and will greatly negatively impact students ability to take advanced courses (or remedial courses if they are behind where most of their grade level peers are), as well as the ability to run robust clubs, and it's very unclear when kids would then be able to make up work missed when they are out sick. I don't love using lunch time to make up work, but I don't know what the other practical alternatives are, other than making teachers stay late or requiring a kid to miss another class to make up a test during the teacher's planning period. I had high hopes for Taylor and he has been a 100% disappointment with dumb ideas like this and the transition day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

That’s not for next year. And I wish him luck with this. There are so many unique schedule days that I don’t think this is practical. For just the testing month alone, there were different schedules for the MISA day vs the NSL day vs the MCAP day and so on and so forth. Those are on different days at different high schools. Not to mention advisory days, pep rally days, days with assembly/guests, half days, conferences. And days where the HVAC breaks, pipes burst, etc. Schools also have different sized cafeteria capacity and different enrollment numbers. This is another one of his half baked ideas that is going to have little to no upshot and big downsides (clubs meeting at lunch, extended time accommodations, ease of master scheduling).

It's such a terrible idea and will greatly negatively impact students ability to take advanced courses (or remedial courses if they are behind where most of their grade level peers are), as well as the ability to run robust clubs, and it's very unclear when kids would then be able to make up work missed when they are out sick. I don't love using lunch time to make up work, but I don't know what the other practical alternatives are, other than making teachers stay late or requiring a kid to miss another class to make up a test during the teacher's planning period. I had high hopes for Taylor and he has been a 100% disappointment with dumb ideas like this and the transition day.

You’re not making any sense. Closed lunch doesn’t automatically mean multiple lunch periods. There are schools that currently have closed lunch and they successfully run clubs and everything else you’re whining about during lunch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

That’s not for next year. And I wish him luck with this. There are so many unique schedule days that I don’t think this is practical. For just the testing month alone, there were different schedules for the MISA day vs the NSL day vs the MCAP day and so on and so forth. Those are on different days at different high schools. Not to mention advisory days, pep rally days, days with assembly/guests, half days, conferences. And days where the HVAC breaks, pipes burst, etc. Schools also have different sized cafeteria capacity and different enrollment numbers. This is another one of his half baked ideas that is going to have little to no upshot and big downsides (clubs meeting at lunch, extended time accommodations, ease of master scheduling).

Most middle schools have multiple lunch periods and they still figure out a way to fit in 7-8 periods plus advisory and standardized tests. Some have club periods in lieu of advisory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TT is now saying here will be a unified HS schedule in 2027-2028. I imagine he will require multiple lunch periods so that he can say open lunch is no longer needed.

Sounds nice in theory, but I don’t think it’s feasible.

[Anonymous]

As someone who works in a high school that currently has "closed" lunch but "one" lunch - it can work at any school, even those that are high enrollment.

Open lunch obviously has its advantages - decreases the stress on lunch lines and provides autonomy to students.

But there are many challenges and concerns with open lunch.

Inevitably, open lunch leads to an increase in tardiness to the period after lunch. Even with best intentions of getting back to school on time after leaving for lunch, there are numerous factors out of the students' control - traffic, longer lines than anticipated, etc. Our school - which does not have open lunch, but still has numerous students leaving campus for lunch - has a steady stream of students returning to campus late after going out to lunch.

Then there are the safety concerns. Things can happen to students in the community - traffic incidents, medical emergencies, fights, etc. The school has no idea who is not in the building and cannot support students once they leave campus. One of the students who provided public comment at a recent BOE meeting mentioned that when there was a safety incident in the building at B-CC during lunch, how great it was that most of the school was in the community and was safe from the incident. However, the student didn't realize he was making a point about the challenge this creates for the school - not knowing which students are in the building and which students are in the community during lunch - during a potential safety incident when accurate attendance is important.

For sure, every campus is different. Different cafeteria sizes. Different access to community food options. Different access to self-transport options (more/less student drivers).

But every high school can successfully navigate a closed, one lunch solution regardless of the size of the cafeteria. Most students find a classroom for eating lunch.

However, I am strongly against going back to multiple lunch periods after seeing the benefits of one lunch. Students have access to teachers during a one lunch period for help, making up work, meeting for clubs, interest meetings, etc. One lunch is awesome. Having started my career at a school with multiple lunch periods... we spent the entire lunch periods trying to keep students in the cafeteria (and keep students from going from classes to the cafeteria). With the way schools are these days with no attendance policy and the hallways being packed during class times, and no consequences for anything... if we go back to multiple lunches, it will be a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who works in a high school that currently has "closed" lunch but "one" lunch - it can work at any school, even those that are high enrollment.

Open lunch obviously has its advantages - decreases the stress on lunch lines and provides autonomy to students.

But there are many challenges and concerns with open lunch.

Inevitably, open lunch leads to an increase in tardiness to the period after lunch. Even with best intentions of getting back to school on time after leaving for lunch, there are numerous factors out of the students' control - traffic, longer lines than anticipated, etc. Our school - which does not have open lunch, but still has numerous students leaving campus for lunch - has a steady stream of students returning to campus late after going out to lunch.

Then there are the safety concerns. Things can happen to students in the community - traffic incidents, medical emergencies, fights, etc. The school has no idea who is not in the building and cannot support students once they leave campus. One of the students who provided public comment at a recent BOE meeting mentioned that when there was a safety incident in the building at B-CC during lunch, how great it was that most of the school was in the community and was safe from the incident. However, the student didn't realize he was making a point about the challenge this creates for the school - not knowing which students are in the building and which students are in the community during lunch - during a potential safety incident when accurate attendance is important.

For sure, every campus is different. Different cafeteria sizes. Different access to community food options. Different access to self-transport options (more/less student drivers).

But every high school can successfully navigate a closed, one lunch solution regardless of the size of the cafeteria. Most students find a classroom for eating lunch.

However, I am strongly against going back to multiple lunch periods after seeing the benefits of one lunch. Students have access to teachers during a one lunch period for help, making up work, meeting for clubs, interest meetings, etc. One lunch is awesome. Having started my career at a school with multiple lunch periods... we spent the entire lunch periods trying to keep students in the cafeteria (and keep students from going from classes to the cafeteria). With the way schools are these days with no attendance policy and the hallways being packed during class times, and no consequences for anything... if we go back to multiple lunches, it will be a disaster.

I know your advocacy as a staff member is all about not doing the multiple lunches, but given that you admit "closed" lunches aren't really closed, it seems like the problem is much bigger. If "closed" lunch isn't actually closed at all, then all of your points on the challenges of doing open lunch are the same for closed lunch, since kids can leave for lunch even if the school's policy says otherwise.

Open and closed lunch have no meaning because there is no capacity for enforcement. All of these policies are worthless. And that's the problem MCPS is not willing to admit or confront.