Father questions policy on talking in lunch line
The Carmichaels board of directors heard from Carmichaels resident Victor Frye about improvements that could be made to speed up the time it takes for students to be served in the grade school cafeteria. Frye noted that his daughter, who is in third grade, and other elementary school students, are not permitted to talk in the lunch line until all children are served, which takes a good portion of the lunch period. If children do talk in the lunch line, he said, they have to sit at the “bad table,” which takes one minute off the 10 minutes the students are allowed to talk.
Frye, holding a copy of the student handbook, said he does not see this procedure noted in the school handbook and doesn’t understand its effectiveness if the children are only talking amongst themselves.
“The problem is we changed the rules in what it says in the student handbook to what they’ve done in the past,” Frye said. “None of these students can talk until everyone is served. …But I couldn’t find anything in here that… one should be punished for another’s behavior.”
“Normally, it is a combination of teacher and principal that makes up those regulations,” school district Superintendent James Zalar said. “The handbook is not written in concrete.”
Frye suggested to put in more cash registers to speed up the time children are served their lunch and the amount of time they can talk, but a few members of the board who spoke up about the suggestion were opposed to the idea.
“Everything is on hold until we can get straightened with our fiscal situation,” district Business Manager Vincent Belczyk said.
Elementary Principal Craig Baily said the procedure to not talk until every student has been served was put in the place the second or third week of the 2004-05 school year to alleviate a problem of students wasting their food because they were talking instead of eating.
“It has worked extremely well,” Baily said of the procedure. “It has really helped with the efficiency of the students and how they eat their lunch.
“One hundred and 65 kids fed in 14 minutes…that’s getting in the line, getting their food and milk paid and out of there. That’s pretty good,” Baily said, noting it is something they’ve looked at several times before.
“I think the cafeteria is running extremely smooth. We received no complaints and I rest on that,” he added.
Baily said he did not know anything about a bad table and would have to check on that.
The board also conducted the following business:
– Voted to transfer funds to complete the auditorium project. Buildings and Grounds Director Lewis May said the project is near its final stages.
“They installed some seats this week and pushed the carpeting back,” May said. “The bulk of it will be done in three weeks and it will be done for this March program.”
– Voted to send a letter to the state saying the school board is opposed to using taxpayers’ money to subsidize cyber and charter schools.
“If the state recognizes it, they should pay for it,” Zalar said.
– Boosted the tax collector’s yearly salary to $15,048 from $13,200. The increase will be effective after the tax collector election in 2006. The current collector of school taxes for Cumberland Township is Andrea M. Eitner, who sent the request asking for an increase to the board. The last increase in a district tax collector’s salary was in 1997 when it went from $11,000 to $13,000.
“I think since 1997 this is a well-earned stipend,” said board President J.L. Lechner.
– Voted to send a policy regarding extracurricular participation in regular school activities by charter/cyber school students back for review by the human resources committee.
The board questioned how cyber/charter school students could meet a policy that says students must be in attendance that day in school to participate in that day’s extracurricular activities and how the board can ensure that cyber/charter school students did in fact go to their version of school that day.
“How do we enforce that if the child didn’t attend school that day?” Director Jerry Simkovic asked the board.
– Entered into executive session for matters of personnel regarding the expulsion of a student, contract regarding an employee grievance filed on Dec. 14 and legal advice after Frye asked for a closed-door session regarding sexual harassment within the school.
In open session, Frye suggested to the board a sexual harassment training program informing the district’s employees and the administration of what is considered sexual harassment.
“I don’t think we have any problems with this (sexual harassment) at this time,” said Solicitor Samuel J. Davis. He noted that there is a district policy in the courts on sexual harassment.