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Any thoughts on it? I don't know much about the school, though I've been there a few times. What are the pros and cons? I would love to hear from parents who have children at SMS, but wouldn't mind hearing about it from the outsider's unbiased perspective.
We have a child at Smith now and so far it has been great. He loves it there. The school serves 7th and 8th grades and is broken down into sections (I believe there are six per grade) so the kids do not feel the school is too big. The building is beautiful with muliple computers in each classroom and a wonderful gym and library. The teachers and staff are all very nice and very good. We are pleased with the academics we have experienced so far.
The only gripe I have is that the cafeteria seems a bit small for a school of that size (1200 students) and there are children who eat lunch at 11:00 AM. With all the emphasis that is placed these days on nutrition you would think there would be a better scheduling of eating times. Hope this helps, Jay
I have no input regarding Smith, but many schools often do have early lunches nowadays. I know of several towns that do this in the middle and high schools, including Monroe. They start serving lunch as early as 10:30. Not all students at once, they serve them in "waves" every half hour or so for a few hours. The schools say they have no choice in the matter, since there are so many students, and many of the schools begin so early in the day. I can't help but think there must be a better solution, that seems ridiculous to me.
It all comes down to money. The state limits the size of the cafeteria and they have to pay workers if they are serving lunch or not. The number of students means they need to serve students in more shifts throughout the day. There are no plans to change it because it would cost too much to enlarge the cafeteria to accomodate more students and to pay for more workers. But to me it is hypicritical to preach about nutrition but not practice it. JMHO Jay
I remember seeing the report card for the first time and thinking about the oh-so-precociousness of adding a nutritional education class for 7th graders. And then I realized that there's a newer generation now, and I don't belong to it lol.
Forgive the timing of this, but I was searching the web for information regarding insane lunch times. My daughter who just entered 7th grade, lunch period starts at 9:45AM. The school day is 8:30AM to 3:10PM. Essentially, she goes to class first period and then she has lunch. I found this to be bizarre. When I questioned it with a school staff member, I was told "That's going to be her lunch time and it's been that way for years!" The woman said it as if, "You can take it or leave, but there is nothing that you can do about it!" Is this true? My daughter will be there just two years, but it doesn't sit well with me for children coming behind. I am not just concerned about her. It sends a bad, bad message about nutrition and education. Have you heard of any other lunch periods that start around this time? Thanks if you get this message. Kim
I know that there are early lunch periods at Smith but did not think that they were as early as 9:45. That is insane. I agree it is hypocritical for schools to preach good nutrition and then have the nerve to schedule their lunches this way.
I think you should contact the Superintendent of Schools immediately on this one directly. Be an angry parent because that is just nuts. I would even write an angry letter to the School Board. Fortunately my child has a reasonable lunch period there otherwise I would be doing this too. Jay
The 9:30 lunch is a much too common event in the very crowded Florida public schools. But there are many more problems in those schools and the lunch time seems to be a quite negligible bump on a roller coaster school system. Thus, we chose private when we lived there......
I am a little concerned about the early lunch time at Smith. On the other hand, my daughter, who is starting middle school tomorrow, will be rising at 6:30 from now on. I think she may actually be hungry by 11:30.
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Early lunch times
