Outdoor lunch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

They’ve been killing it! It’s nice to know there’s a few schools out there that still put kids first

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

Amazing. Well done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney possesses heaters but has not found a safe way to plug them in.

They ordered heaters without having a plan of how to power them?

I'm not sure who "they" is - but perhaps the PTA ordered them without fully thinking it through, operationally.

Or, maybe the electrical is supposed to be able to handle them, but in fact can't.

I hope it's the latter, but even that would be embarrassing. Everyone knows that electric heating draws a lot of power. They should have checked the amperage before spending money on such a purchase.

They were definitely paid for out of PTA funds, so it isn’t really a problem for anyone except the Janney families who give to the PTA if the money was wasted. But hopefully they’ll find a way to make them work at some point soon.

No, they were not. DCPS provided the heaters.

Huh, that's interesting and surprising news -- I was certain this was another example of Janney buying something nice for ourselves that the rest of the city couldn't get. Of course, the unfortunate part is that... they don't work. But that's why I made sure my kids wore their jackets to school today.

Ludlow-Taylor also has DCPS supplied heaters, but DCPS didn’t supply generators and the school can’t handle the power load even if it were logistically feasible to plug them in. We have yet to have lunch outside despite tons of space. I understand the weather now is very challenging, but there’s really no excuse for pre-break when it was rarely intemperate.

I would be real mad about that as an LT parent. You have a ton of outdoor space.

I would be too. It’s great outdoor space as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

Amazing. Well done.

I hope you last two posters were being sarcastic.

[Anonymous]

I used to support outdoor lunch and all the other measures we're doing in schools, but my view is changing. This article pretty much sums up why:

https://nypost.com/2022/01/11/normalcy-for-florida-kids-shows-how-wrong-nyc-school-rules-are/

Florida aside - I just wonder what the point of all these mitigations is, when very few countries practice them in primary schools with no adverse outcomes. And when is DCPS leadership going to be able to quit them, given that covid will always be circulating and a new surge or variant will frequently be on the horizon?

[Anonymous]

We’ve been tight on Covid and preferred outdoor lunch but I gave my kid who is vacccinated the choice today given the temps. They happily chose to eat outside and wasn’t phased by the cold. Glad they had a choice, and glad they didn’t skip a beat or stress about it at all. Was just another day….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

Damn. We are so overly focused on Covid Covid COVID to the exclusion of any other concerns. No other educational, social, physical, emotional, economic concerns matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

Damn. We are so overly focused on Covid Covid COVID to the exclusion of any other concerns. No other educational, social, physical, emotional, economic concerns matter.

Agree, it’s insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting that lunch is 15 minutes? It’s always a solid 30 at our ES for k-5 and PK is 45 min. So that means tomorrow in the below freezing temps four year olds will be sitting on concrete for 45 min.

No they will not. They cannot.

Update: They were. All of the kids at Hearst were forced to eat outside and given no indoor lunch option. Parents were told to leave work and come get them for lunch if they wanted. Ridiculous.

The school was realistic about the science and the data and chose not to expose the entire community to more omicron spread. Bravo, Hearst!!!!

Amazing. Well done.

I hope you last two posters were being sarcastic.

No we were not. You deniers have mostly succeeded in chasing us from the board and probably enjoy your echo chamber, but some stick around and others come back. That was absolutely the right decision by Hearst. It will mean a dozen or dozens fewer omicron cases at Hearst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been tight on Covid and preferred outdoor lunch but I gave my kid who is vacccinated the choice today given the temps. They happily chose to eat outside and wasn’t phased by the cold. Glad they had a choice, and glad they didn’t skip a beat or stress about it at all. Was just another day….

Kids love to eat outside, so do most grown ups. Ross in Dupont Circle has been eating out side, mostly in the sun. Very handy as there are still some kids old enough to be vaccinated who are not.

Outside eating at school needs to one of those things we hang on to after all of this is passed, kids can be louder and have a bit more fun at meal time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to support outdoor lunch and all the other measures we're doing in schools, but my view is changing. This article pretty much sums up why:

https://nypost.com/2022/01/11/normalcy-for-florida-kids-shows-how-wrong-nyc-school-rules-are/

Florida aside - I just wonder what the point of all these mitigations is, when very few countries practice them in primary schools with no adverse outcomes. And when is DCPS leadership going to be able to quit them, given that covid will always be circulating and a new surge or variant will frequently be on the horizon?

Outdoor lunch is a good thing regardless of covid. Other countries have kids spend more time outdoors as a normal thing. I don't think it's something DCPS ever needs to quit. There is nothing beneficial about the traditional American school cafeteria experience.

[Anonymous]

Eating outside in appropriate weather is absolutely a great practice for schools during Covid times as well as if we ever reach non-Covid times! Eating outside on a slab of partially iced over concrete in 22 degree temps with a windchill making it 11 degrees is not such a great idea, nor is it the norm in other countries. Playing in that weather bundled up with gloves and facial covering is very, very different from sitting down on the ground and eating a meal in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eating outside in appropriate weather is absolutely a great practice for schools during Covid times as well as if we ever reach non-Covid times! Eating outside on a slab of partially iced over concrete in 22 degree temps with a windchill making it 11 degrees is not such a great idea, nor is it the norm in other countries. Playing in that weather bundled up with gloves and facial covering is very, very different from sitting down on the ground and eating a meal in it.

Thank you Captain Obvious, most of the outdoor lunch schools were flexible (as they should be) during the cold snap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eating outside in appropriate weather is absolutely a great practice for schools during Covid times as well as if we ever reach non-Covid times! Eating outside on a slab of partially iced over concrete in 22 degree temps with a windchill making it 11 degrees is not such a great idea, nor is it the norm in other countries. Playing in that weather bundled up with gloves and facial covering is very, very different from sitting down on the ground and eating a meal in it.

Thank you Captain Obvious, most of the outdoor lunch schools were flexible (as they should be) during the cold snap.

Obviously, the reason the PP is right to point this out is that there were a couple of posters on this thread who were cheering on Hearst for making four-year-olds eat on the icy concrete this week, with the only alternative being that their parents could pick them up.