Lunchtime - How Much Time?
I recently became aware that just like start times, lunchtime varies widely from school to school. There is a Board procedure - H61.01 that states:
"Meal periods shall be long enough for students to eat and socialize – a minimum of 10 minutes are provided to eat breakfast and 20 minutes to eat lunch with additional time as appropriate for standing in line".
"It is the policy of the Seattle School District, that each school located in a District building participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Providing quality, nutritious meals that appeal to students in a safe, clean, pleasant dining environment shall be a priority."
As Charlie likes to point out, a procedure or policy is only as good as those who will enforce it. In this case, that would be the Superintendent.
What has come to light is that a growing number of elementary schools are having lunch periods of 20 minutes or less. While some kids eat quickly, others don't and sometimes that gets perceived as dawdling.
Many students (and we know this is definitely true for middle/high school) run out of time as they are standing in long lines to get food. Bring your own food - get to eat faster. (Or, as is the case for older students, go off campus. It's a pretty sad thing to see so many kids call soda and chips "lunch" but I see it all the time at Roosevelt.)
Because of the rush, some of the younger students are encouraged to go to recess to make room for other students.
None of this is good. It's a very American thing to wolf food down but I know this is not the case in many countries. (My sons attended school in Italy and, as you can guess, food is important.)
And, if we have fewer students wanting to/being able to access food service, we may see fewer food choices and cutbacks in food service. That may not affect your child but it is very important for students on free/reduced lunch service.
Examples:
- Garfield has ONE 30-minute meal period for the entire school
- Ingraham has ONE 35-minute meal period for the entire school
- All the comprehensive middle schools have two meal periods of 30 minutes
- Arbor Heights has 15-minute lunch periods; Bagley has one 25 minute one and one 15-minute one. Broadview-Thompson, Coe, Concord, Highland Park, Laurelhurst, MLK, Jr., Madrona, Maple, McDonald, Montlake, North Beach, Northgate, Orca, Rogers, Sanislo, Thornton Creek, TOPS, Viewlands, West Woodland, and Wing Luke all have at least one 15-minute lunch period.
I know the instructional time is important but students need these breaks to socialize and refresh themselves.
"Meal periods shall be long enough for students to eat and socialize – a minimum of 10 minutes are provided to eat breakfast and 20 minutes to eat lunch with additional time as appropriate for standing in line".
"It is the policy of the Seattle School District, that each school located in a District building participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Providing quality, nutritious meals that appeal to students in a safe, clean, pleasant dining environment shall be a priority."
As Charlie likes to point out, a procedure or policy is only as good as those who will enforce it. In this case, that would be the Superintendent.
What has come to light is that a growing number of elementary schools are having lunch periods of 20 minutes or less. While some kids eat quickly, others don't and sometimes that gets perceived as dawdling.
Many students (and we know this is definitely true for middle/high school) run out of time as they are standing in long lines to get food. Bring your own food - get to eat faster. (Or, as is the case for older students, go off campus. It's a pretty sad thing to see so many kids call soda and chips "lunch" but I see it all the time at Roosevelt.)
Because of the rush, some of the younger students are encouraged to go to recess to make room for other students.
None of this is good. It's a very American thing to wolf food down but I know this is not the case in many countries. (My sons attended school in Italy and, as you can guess, food is important.)
And, if we have fewer students wanting to/being able to access food service, we may see fewer food choices and cutbacks in food service. That may not affect your child but it is very important for students on free/reduced lunch service.
Examples:
- Garfield has ONE 30-minute meal period for the entire school
- Ingraham has ONE 35-minute meal period for the entire school
- All the comprehensive middle schools have two meal periods of 30 minutes
- Arbor Heights has 15-minute lunch periods; Bagley has one 25 minute one and one 15-minute one. Broadview-Thompson, Coe, Concord, Highland Park, Laurelhurst, MLK, Jr., Madrona, Maple, McDonald, Montlake, North Beach, Northgate, Orca, Rogers, Sanislo, Thornton Creek, TOPS, Viewlands, West Woodland, and Wing Luke all have at least one 15-minute lunch period.
I know the instructional time is important but students need these breaks to socialize and refresh themselves.
Comments
So @ a school with a 15 minute lunch, this kinda of screws the FRL Kids
--concerned
-Garfield Mom
I cant imagine a shorter time for elementary students.
I would rather have a longer school day.
So I started paying attention to how long she took to eat lunch at home and realized she was usually done within ten minutes. At her school, they don't excuse the kids for recess until they've been in there for 10-15 minutes. Once I put those two things together, I became much more comfortable with how lunch works.
She also gets a snack about 1.5 hours before lunch and one as soon as she gets home. For our family, that works out fine.
One thing at Whittier that seems to work is that the K-2 lunch is after the 3-5. The K-2 children are allowed to stay in the lunchroom into recess, if they want. It means a little less recess, but works for the younger students or those who eat slowly.
However, many parents would prefer recess before lunch...which is a different discussion altogether.
.
I know we have a 10 min shorter school day than a lot of other elementary schools in the district. That equals ~30 less hours of school per/year. I know it's been mentioned as one of the reasons for shortening the lunch/recess time from what it had been in previous years. That lost time needs to be "made up" somehow and that's a place where 5 or 10 mins can be gained. I understand that next year our bell schedule may change and we'd get back those 10 mins and hopefully a slightly longer lunch/recess period.
~Arbor Heights Parent
Northend Mom
That's crazy! How many adults can reasonably eat a healthy lunch in 7 minutes, let alone force elementary kids to do that?!
I hope it's better this year, can anyone enlighten?
Northend Mom
A the same time I'm disappointed that theone we have has choosen to ignore this one. I'm sure he did'nt just learn about this and we are in March.
Must be that he is so reluctant to rock the boat he won't say boo about anything.
Can't Seattle find a superintendent with courage AND a heart?
The manager at Starbucks (or Macy's) doesn't need a centralized directive from regional or national headquarters to figure out how to give employees time for breaks -- or shouldn't. We need principals to step up here and solve problems. There are intractible problems in schools -- this is not one of them.
Honestly, I feel like some of these administrators are just "phoning it in." This should NOT be this hard!
You'd think they didn't exist.
And no one else will point them out because someone might not like it. So everyone keeps their mouths shut.
Lets start a hotline for THAT!
Ah. Captcha says I am just being "renactiv." Oh well.
Oh, they know..........they just don't want to hear about it.
Six months into the school year parents finally found out. And what's being done about it?
We have seen no change at our third graders school. STill 15 minutes.
We are just waiting to see if he will still be there when anything changes.