Anonymous
Post 09/13/2025 19:17     Subject: Open Lunch
Out of the 25 high schools, which schools dont have open lunch?
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 13:48     Subject: Open Lunch
Has any school done away with open lunch?
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2025 22:21     Subject: Re:Open Lunch
There are no study halls.

Resource classes are very limited (most of the spots are for kids with IEPs).
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2025 21:15     Subject: Open Lunch
Are there study hall or resource class time nowadays? We had them but which MCP HS have this?
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2025 21:14     Subject: Open Lunch
I attended an out of state HS with 3,000 students. We had 2 lunches and weren’t allowed off campus. Clubs met after school from 2:30-3:30. Extra help either happened during the 50 minute class, during your study hall/resource class time, or after school.

Teacher contract hours are longer than the actual school day and there are stipends for clubs.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2025 21:04     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2025 19:18     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/04/2025 13:35     Subject: Open Lunch
Who decides if school has an open lunch or closed? Principal or District?
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2025 10:45     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/04/2025 10:44     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/04/2025 10:42     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/04/2025 10:41     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/03/2025 17:18     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/03/2025 14:12     Subject: Open Lunch
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
Post 03/03/2025 14:11     Subject: Open Lunch
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.