Open Lunch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to do what most other states do: 30min lunches in shifts.

And don’t come back with “all students need the same lunch for clubs.” BS. Clubs can meet after school. I’m a teacher who runs multiple clubs and after-school clubs works. If kids don’t want to stay after school, they don’t have to participate.

Expecting 2500-3000 kids to have the same lunch is madness and is not efficient for all students to be able to eat lunch on campus

Parent of high schooler here.

I vastly prefer the all one lunch model. My kid does a school sport and a club sport. They do activities. After school is busy. We go to our home school but it's super important to get as much into the day as possible for kids who don't live in boundary so they can get home (talking about Blair and Wheaton and RM, etc...). At an everyone-lunch they can see ALL friends if they choose, or they can do club + teacher help or teacher help + eat. I think what happens during 30 minute lunches is kids are even less likely to be able to eat.

Also lots of kids have to work or pick up siblings after school. Clubs during lunch is a lot of inclusive and equitable because it enables participation for everyone. This is probably the most important thing. I am sure lots of kids "want" to do a club but can't because mom said I have to pick up my brother or I have to go to work at Sweet Frog at 3pm.

I suppose if most kids are using the cafeteria this is harder, but at my kid's school most bring lunch.

My HS kid wouldn’t want to eat in a cafeteria. Middle school was a nightmare—loud, unruly, crowded. The sensory overload was horrible. She finally managed to land a gig as a library aide that let her escape the cafeteria as soon as she finished eating. I suspect some days she just didn’t eat.

She loves being able to find a quiet hallway or outdoor space with friends, or eat in a teacher’s classroom while practicing for quiz bowl, or playing board games, or whatever. She can eat without stress, and also have some productive or social time.

[Anonymous]

Middle school is the worst. School leaders shouting, students not following directions will get up and leave when bell rings despite AP telling them to stay put. Not our Larla of course but many 5th through 8th graders.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to do what most other states do: 30min lunches in shifts.

And don’t come back with “all students need the same lunch for clubs.” BS. Clubs can meet after school. I’m a teacher who runs multiple clubs and after-school clubs works. If kids don’t want to stay after school, they don’t have to participate.

Expecting 2500-3000 kids to have the same lunch is madness and is not efficient for all students to be able to eat lunch on campus

Parent of high schooler here.

I vastly prefer the all one lunch model. My kid does a school sport and a club sport. They do activities. After school is busy. We go to our home school but it's super important to get as much into the day as possible for kids who don't live in boundary so they can get home (talking about Blair and Wheaton and RM, etc...). At an everyone-lunch they can see ALL friends if they choose, or they can do club + teacher help or teacher help + eat. I think what happens during 30 minute lunches is kids are even less likely to be able to eat.

Also lots of kids have to work or pick up siblings after school. Clubs during lunch is a lot of inclusive and equitable because it enables participation for everyone. This is probably the most important thing. I am sure lots of kids "want" to do a club but can't because mom said I have to pick up my brother or I have to go to work at Sweet Frog at 3pm.

I suppose if most kids are using the cafeteria this is harder, but at my kid's school most bring lunch.

Cafeterias are purposely built too small to serve a school's full capacity at once these days. One way to save on construction costs. Woodward is clocking in at $208 Million. High Schools are crazy expensive to build. Think what it will cost with Trump's tariffs.

Schools were much smaller way back when.

[Anonymous]

Blake has about 1953 students. Smaller than most other MCP HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WJ does, they overrun Wildwood shopping center until 12. They are allowed to get food and supposed to take it back to the cafeteria, which they do at Chipotle, Flippin side of OGR because there's a security officer there, but at Wildwood Balduccis side, they get use Flower Child and Piccolo as a cafeteria. It's REALLY annoying and I wish the restaurants would complain.

They are not going to complain in hopes of business.

They probably have already complained or informed school. And then what? Nothing.

They complained at the giant side and now they have a limited number of students that can enter the giant at once, and the VP and a security guard stand outside of flippin pizza to ensure that students buy their food and go back to the school. They are not allowed to eat at the restaurant. But on the balduccis side they do sit. Go to flower child and they will be eating everything but flower child at the outdoor tables. They go to Bethesda bagels and eat it at piccolo. They also bring pizza slices from the school cafeteria to the restaurants. So they did complain and something changed, but only on one side of the street. But the balduccis side they ignored.

I’ve never seen this and it seems so unlikely to me. My kid goes for fish taco somethings but by the time you get out of the school, walk all the way over, and get your food, you need to head back and eat it on the way.

If that is happening, the restaurants should tell them to leave if they did not buy food there. I think most of the restaurants are glad of the business as there isn’t a huge lunch crowd otherwise. There’s just that one office building. As someone who works downtown, let me tell you — having businesses stay open is no small thing. More than half our lunch places never reopened after COVID and we’ve lost a couple more recently.

The Giant was a different problem and I agree there was some impolite behavior there — I think it just felt more casual there because not a restaurant so the kids were not reading the room correctly..

You've never seen this and find it unlikely but you work downtown....so how would you see this? I'm not even sure what you are referring to. I live in the neighborhood and eat at Wildwood or the Giant side 1-2 times a week. I like to eat around 11:30 so I frequently see the students.

Restaurants aren't telling them to leave, that is the problem. They complained once at the beginning of the year about the trash left behind in the courtyard near Chipotle so they changed the rules to not allow them to sit to eat (they must bring it back to the cafeteria) and added in the security guard. Later in fall, the Giant complained about the number of students visiting at lunchtime and they implemented a line/count of students allowed in the store at once. But that only works on THAT side of OGR, there is no enforcement or guidance in Wildwood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

Students benefit more from being able to see any friend they want to at lunch, having the opportunity to make up tests they missed, get extra help from the teachers, and attend club meetings. The administrators get the headache of dealing with complaints about student behavior off campus during lunch, but avoid the headache of much more complicated scheduling. The teachers can offer help to students at lunch instead of having to stay late to help kids after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

That's how they did it in MCPS in the 80s. The only downside was if your friends weren't assigned to the same lunch period. That was a bummer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

That's how MCPS did it in the 80s. The only downside was if your friends weren't assigned to the same lunch period. That was a bummer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

Students benefit more from being able to see any friend they want to at lunch, having the opportunity to make up tests they missed, get extra help from the teachers, and attend club meetings. The administrators get the headache of dealing with complaints about student behavior off campus during lunch, but avoid the headache of much more complicated scheduling. The teachers can offer help to students at lunch instead of having to stay late to help kids after school.

Only a handful of teachers offer help at lunch. Yes, those things are nice but the complications of how it’s working now is not working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

Students benefit more from being able to see any friend they want to at lunch, having the opportunity to make up tests they missed, get extra help from the teachers, and attend club meetings. The administrators get the headache of dealing with complaints about student behavior off campus during lunch, but avoid the headache of much more complicated scheduling. The teachers can offer help to students at lunch instead of having to stay late to help kids after school.

None of these benefits are objectively measured or consistent.

The other downsides to the current model means teachers don't actually get a break to have lunch, since they have to use the lunch period to host clubs, give kids a space to hang out, or do make up work. This contributes to the significant teacher burnout we're seeing in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Who decides if school has an open lunch or closed? Principal or District?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how staggered lunches would work. My sophomore has classes with kids from 9th to 12th grade. It seems like a scheduling nightmare. Maybe if there were two periods, 11-12 and 12-1 or something it could work but it seems very challenging.

They have 2-3 lunch periods and kids get assigned depending on their schedule.

Students benefit more from being able to see any friend they want to at lunch, having the opportunity to make up tests they missed, get extra help from the teachers, and attend club meetings. The administrators get the headache of dealing with complaints about student behavior off campus during lunch, but avoid the headache of much more complicated scheduling. The teachers can offer help to students at lunch instead of having to stay late to help kids after school.

Only a handful of teachers offer help at lunch. Yes, those things are nice but the complications of how it’s working now is not working.

This model not only works well, but is essential for kids who aren’t attending their home school. There are only so many things magnet students can fit in between the end of the school day and the late bus. Lunch is a critical time for clubs and make up tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to do what most other states do: 30min lunches in shifts.

And don’t come back with “all students need the same lunch for clubs.” BS. Clubs can meet after school. I’m a teacher who runs multiple clubs and after-school clubs works. If kids don’t want to stay after school, they don’t have to participate.

Expecting 2500-3000 kids to have the same lunch is madness and is not efficient for all students to be able to eat lunch on campus

Often teachers are also assisting students during lunch time. Many teachers are also sponsors of clubs and teachers have said most days they don't get lunch during the designated lunch time.

Did you miss the part where I said I was a teacher who does both those things?? I can do them both after school. Extra support from 7:20a-7:45a and 2:30p-2:50p. Clubs after school… which if you are getting a stipend for you are supposed to run it after school