Why Two Lunches?

  This year, Esperero Canyon Middle School has gone from three to two lunches.  Like our sister school, Orange Grove (who switched to 2 lunches a year ago), we feel this change is a necessary one so that we can allow our teachers common content level team planning time.  In order to prepare our students for rigorous 21st Century learning in light of the Common Core State Standards, research says that teachers need time to plan and collaborate.  Instead of having 6th, 7th, and 8th grade lunches separately, we have eliminated one lunch period.  The 6th graders and 1/2 of 7th graders go to A lunch.  One-half of 7th graders and all of the 8th graders go to B lunch. 
  In order to accommodate additional students at each lunch, we ordered and put into place additional cafeteria tables.  We committed to giving teachers  a duty-free lunch so that they can be available at lunch to assist students.  We have increased our supervision with our very experienced team of counselors, our curriculum technology integrator, and our educational assistants.  Ms. Castro and I always do lunch duty except for days when we have district level meetings when we appoint a designee.  Our cafeteria manager, Ms. Lee, and her cheerful and efficient staff are always present along with additional staff to make sure that the students can purchase and eat their lunches in a reasonable amount of time.  
    Some of the events that will take place this year at lunch include our theme lunches.  We will continue our Valentine lunch for parents and grandparents.  We will also have an international lunch for our students where they can experience cuisine from other countries, specially prepared by our wonderful food service provider, Sodexo. Many of our students tell us that they really love our lunch menu, especially the pizza and freshly baked pretzels. 
     We appreciate any feedback that can help us be a better learning community.  Please email me at msetliff@cfsd16.org or call at 209-8102.