First off, what is smart lunch? Smart lunch is a program the FVHS administrators want to start next year where lunch is an hour long, and everyone has the same lunch. Within that hour, students can go and work with teachers, make up tests or attend club meetings. All underclassmen have to participate in an activity, whether that is with a teacher or a club. Additionally, students with off campus lunch passes can be gone that whole hour.
There are some benefits to smart lunch, like having more time to eat lunch and the fact that students are given extra time to make up missing work. When clubs can hold meetings during lunch, students don’t have to worry about finding a way to get home. Also, given the fact that students all have the same lunch, this will make making up missing assessments easier as well.
“It will make club meetings easier and touring easier,” said freshman Cora Bliss.
Some students are not getting enough time to eat with the current lunch. With people getting lunch from the lunch line, that takes time, and students at the end of the line don’t get much time to eat.
“We already have lots of people who have to get school lunches and some won’t even get to a spot or get lunch till maybe a few minutes before [the bell rings],” said junior Zach Miller.
However, there is just not enough space for everyone to have the same lunch, as the cafeteria is full with just half the school. This means more students will have to sit in the courtyard for lunch, but when the weather isn’t nice, students will not want to sit outside.
“I feel like the cafeteria is going to get overwhelmed and teachers who open their classrooms are going to get overrun too,” said junior Sam Kepke.
There is also the issue of students who have off campus lunch. Getting to leave campus leaves ample opportunity for students to skip the rest of the day; students already are late to class after lunch and an hour lunch would only make that worse. There could also be issues of who is responsible for them because they could get in trouble or get in a wreck during school hours.
Another question, is what are kids who are upperclassmen without off campus lunch passes supposed to do? They could go to catch up on work, but what if they don’t have any missing work? Well in this case, the best answer may be to join a club.
Some students also need that break from academics that lunch provides. If they have to do work during lunch, then that could negatively affect them, as they have not had a break. Socialization with friends is also important, especially considering that some students can’t do that outside of school.
“Teachers might take too much advantage of it and start giving too much work during lunch and take away our social time, which would be bad for a lot of students,” said Bliss.
