NHS, State Work Together To Solve ‘Hungry Mondays’

By Martha Coville

Shortly after winter vacation, Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais sent a letter to the parents of the 280 NHS students who do not have a scheduled lunch period on Mondays. Federal law requires schools to provide students with a lunch period between 10 am and 2 pm, and Connecticut state law requires that the lunch period be at least 20 minutes long.

In the letter, Mr Dumais acknowledged the school’s failure to comply with federal law. “Your child’s lunch period falls before 10 am,” he wrote. He said the state Department of Education had granted the district nine months to comply with the law. “We have been informed by the Commissioner of Education’s office that we are not obligated to meet [these] requirement[s] until September 2008,” he said.

But Susan Fiore, the nutrition education coordinator for the Connecticut state Department of Education, denied that her office had granted NHS a reprieve. “Actually, I’m not sure where that information came from,” she said.

Ms Fiore also said “there’s nothing in state law” to penalize schools for not offering lunch periods.

Mr Dumais’s letter, dated January 10, continued to say that NHS administrators “have decided to be proactive and manage the situation to immediately rectify the situation.” Mr Dumais called the 280 students without a lunch break to a special assembly on the 10th, where he handed out the letter.

Attached was a waiver that allowed parents to say that they were “satisfied and supportive of my child’s current Monday lunch schedule,” or else to check a box reading, “I am not satisfied with my child’s current Monday lunch schedule, and I request that it be changed.”

Working Toward

A Solution

Although Ms Fiore says her office has not given Newtown High School permission to continue its Monday lunch schedule through the end of this year, she also said she appreciated Mr Dumais’s good faith efforts to solve the scheduling problem. “That’s why the school is working to offer students solutions or changes to their schedules,” she said. “That’s why they called the assembly.” Technically, Ms Fiore said, asking parents to sign the waiver sent by Mr Dumais would bring Newtown High School into compliance with federal lunch laws. “It means they were offered a lunch,” she said. “However, having said that,” she said, “we’re still in the process of reviewing everything.”

Ms Fiore said that her office asked high school administrators to explain how they plan to bring to the school into compliance. “We asked them to submit a plan in writing,” she said, “because of the complaints we received.” She said her office received the plan during the first week of January. “We’ll get back to them as to whether their plan is satisfactory, and what we can do about it,” she said.

Mr Dumais said that students are still turning in the waiver, but that only a few have decided to change their schedules. He confirmed that he had sent a written plan to Ms Fiore, and said he was waiting to hear back from her. Mr Dumais, who began his job as NHS principal in January, said, “All I can really say is that she contacted us about our plans recently. I’ll be better able to questions when the state gets back to us.” He expects an answer during the week of January 27.

Mr Dumais also said that although he signed the January 10 letter, it was actually written by his predecessor, Dr Jay Smith.

Both the letter and the waiver detail the complications of changing a student’s schedule. Parents who “request” that their child be offered a lunch period at a reasonable time on Mondays must check a box on the waiver reading: “By making this request, I understand the following: My child’s course selection may be changed. As a result of these course changes, my child’s educational experience may be changed.”

The letter is even more discouraging. That last paragraph says that if parents are unsatisfied with their child’s schedule, the schedule may be rearranged. However, it warns, “The schedule change can result in multiple adjustments in course changes, and may result in adjustments that will impact the student experience for the remainder of the year.”