EPISD discusses benefits of switching to a single lunch hour
Should high school students all have the same lunch period, or be divided up into two?
El Paso Independent School District trustees held a discussion about the topic with principals at Wednesday’s board finance committee meeting.
EPISD Spokeswoman Melissa Martinez said principals who had switched from two lunch periods to one have seen benefits.
“It gives you more instructional time, more time for services. You can offer tutoring. That’s essentially an extra hour that isn’t being spent on lunch,” Martinez said. “Also they noticed a drop in disciple referrals. When you had two lunch shifts, there were more opportunities to skip class.”
However, data collected by those schools showed less students were eating lunch in the cafeteria. The question was raised about whether that was due to the lines being too long.
“I had recommended a couple months ago, and was pretty adamant about it, that we insist that all high schools actually have two lunch shifts so kids have access to quality affordable food and aren’t skipping lunch,” District 3 Trustee Susie Byrd said. “I am not wedded to two lunch shifts or one. My bottom line is no student on our campuses should go without access to food in a day and if we are doing things in our schedule that makes it hard for students to get food then we need to change.”
Members at Wednesday’s meeting acknowledged that doesn’t solely students aren’t eating. Students on all campus, with the exception of some freshman, have the opportunity to go off campus for lunch.
While this topic was merely a discussion, the board does have the authority to create policies regarding scheduling, and that’s something that would require a vote by the entire board.
