Kinzie was so frustrated by the 2nd week, she was almost in tears.
She is upstairs for her class before lunch and she has 2nd lunch. This means that she is often at the end of the line and they often run out of what she wants for lunch. The first time they ran out of her choice, they simply grabbed pizza from the other line and put it in the line she was already in.
The next time, she waited for 10 minutes in a line, they ran out so she had to get in another line to wait for another 10 minutes. By then, she didn't have enough time to enjoy her lunch, cause she had to hurry. she does not like to eat fast.
Four times in a week they ran out of her choice for lunch.
I wrote a little letter to the principal. :)
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Hi,
I thought I might just make a suggestion for your school lunch time. My kids almost always seem to be upstairs just before lunch and have to spend a good amount of time in the lunch line.
My daughter has had 2 days in a row of not getting what she wants because they have run out of her choice (she has 2nd lunch) just as she gets up to the front of the line. Yesterday, they just brought pizza up to the "hamburger line" when they ran out of hamburgers, and she didn't have to wait in a second line. Today, she had to wait in one line, and when it ran out, she had to go wait in another line. She says it was like 20 minutes waiting in lines. Then, she didn't have much time left to eat lunch (slow eater.) I'm sure she is not the only kid at the school getting frustrated with the waiting and not getting her choice. (I have had other kids come home frustrated with the lunch line in years' past.) Some kids would just like a chance to hang out with friends during lunch and don't have much time to do that when they spend most of it in a lunch line.
My suggestion is this: On odd numbered days on the calendar, let the kids upstairs get out of class 1 minute early for lunch. Or even a week at a time. This would allow for those kids to have the opportunity to get to the lunch line first and have some chances to get what they want without having to wait, wait, wait everyday. It would make these kids less frustrated knowing that they will have a fair chance to get to the front of the line sometimes.
I did this when I drove the school bus. Every other day the boys got to get on the bus first. It cut down on the frustration for the kids knowing that they would get their turn to be first.
I think my suggestion is a great one, and I hope you will consider it.
Thank you,
(signed my name)
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The principal wrote me back and said they monitor the lunch process to make sure it is working and meet about it to discuss improvements. He would take my idea to the "meeting". I never heard back from him.
Kinzie informed me today that today was the 4th "even" day that the upstairs classes have gotten out 4 minutes early for lunch!
YAY!!!!
I love it when I have a good idea and other people think so too, enough so that they implement it and change the frustration level of 200 kids and just as many helpless parents.
