Local News

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Parent meeting Edmonds School District parents and others who are interested in attending a meeting Wednesday to help develop a new school-lunch policy should contact Assistant Superintendent Marla Miller at millerM@edmonds.wednet.edu. People also are welcome to e-mail suggestions for a new policy. She emphasized that the school board will not be at the meeting and it is not a public hearing. The meeting is 7 p.m. in the Edmonds School District Board Room, 20420 68th Avenue W. in Lynnwood.   Related Stories • Behold, the power of cheese 9/12/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, September 12, 2008 Edmonds School District rolls back lunch policy By Kaitlin Manry, Herald Writer Kids going through the lunch line in Edmonds schools now can keep the food on their tray, even if their parents owe the district money. Superintendent Nick Brossoit decided Thursday to temporarily suspend the district's policy of replacing hot lunch with a cold cheese sandwich for students whose parents owe at least $10 in lunch fees. Cafeteria workers were being required to throw away food from students' trays if they didn't have money and their parents owed at least $10. Instead, they were given a sandwich made with cheddar cheese and whole-grain bread. On Wednesday the district started giving them milk, too. "We don't want to throw away food and we don't want to embarrass students," Brossoit said Thursday. After a story about the policy appeared in The Herald earlier this week, people began demanding change. Now the district is seeking the community's input on drafting a new lunch policy that would make parents pay their debts, but still protect children and get them fed. District administrators plan to discuss ideas Wednesday during separate meetings with cafeteria workers, school principals and parents. With the cost of food and fuel rising, the district last week began replacing hot lunch with cold sandwiches for kids whose parents owed money. The goal was to help recoup $207,763 in parent lunch fee debt carried over from last school year. School started with 2,750 students owing $10 or more. After five days of the cheese-sandwich policy, parents paid back $45,269 of the debt. Barbara Burley, a cashier at Hazelwood Elementary in Lynnwood, knows that the school can't afford to buy lunches for everyone, but she couldn't bear taking milk and fruit away from kids. Upset, she and other staff members collected donations to buy hot lunch for kids who would have otherwise received a cheese sandwich. On Thursday, she was delighted to give children an IOU and put their lunch on their parents' tab, just as she had been doing in the past. "Now I can keep my job and I don't have to humiliate a child -- and that's all I wanted," she said. Ron Martinez, president of the district's PTSA, also was glad to hear that cafeteria workers have stopped throwing away perfectly good food. "It's good that they suspended that and it's good that they're continuing to feed the kids and it's good that they're trying to get the community involved to try to find a solution," the Lynnwood father said. "I think that shows they're looking to help the kids." To eliminate some of the problems with the current policy, the district is considering placing cashiers at the head of the lunch line, to check whether students owe money, Brossoit said. The cashiers have been at the end of school lunch lines in order to meet a federal law requiring them to look over a child's meal to make sure it's nutritionally balanced. "It was never the district's intent to have the process result in students being embarrassed or having to discard food," Brossoit wrote in an open letter to the community, posted on the district Web site. "We are very sorry that this has occurred." Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

1. From behind bars, pal tells Colton Harris-Moore to keep running 2. A student by day, he's homeless by night 3. Colton Harris-Moore’s mother says he’s not out in the cold 4. Vigil at Mariner High School honors two crash victims 5. Attorney’s daughter: Mom had to have deal with Tiger Woods 6. Sen. Haugen’s husband sued by her former aide 7. Korean Air to buy Boeing 747-8 passenger planes 8. Fund set up to benefit children of couple killed in crash 9. Everett approves a tribute to key figure in its history 10. Snohomish County home sales up; prices fall 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

• Wildcats fall to familar foe in semis • ‘Nutcracker' times three • Road warrior • Mavericks reloading • Holiday Lightings & Santa Sightings • Cities prepare for winter blast repeat • Wolfpack duo takes last shot at state tourney • This Weekend in Your Town • Tips for the stormy season • Boeing will build, flight test and deliver 787s in South Carolina to spe ... • Snohomish County EDC promoting job growth in key industry clusters • $4 million grant to advance brain tumor research has Everett links • Providence medical center construction tops off its 12-story steel frame ... • Tulalip affordable housing project to be financed by KeyBank, Raymond Ja ... • Arlington's Lak of Ink has a growing following for Luke Kooyman's creati ... • Bank of the Northwest formed • Cascade Bank earns $1.6 million