'Kind Dining Experience' Comes to Hawley School

Two weeks into the school year at the Hawley Café, four classes of 1^st graders move from food line to table in five minutes.

Taking lunch duty along with educational assistants Renee Burns and Alyssa Scalora, principal Jo-Ann Peters beamed in approval as students carried meatball grinders and cartons of milk quickly to their tables. Peters praised the efficiency of the new lunch system at Hawley.

"The transition's gone really well and the kids are excited to be able to eat with their grade level," she said.

Peters said the creation of the cafe brings many positive changes to the school.

In the past "lunch was a major scheduling issue for us," she said.

Teachers supervised lunch when students ate in their classrooms and then ate their own lunches during the recess period while educational assistants took over supervision of the children.

"Certified staff now do all recess duty," Peters said.

In addition students now go to recess before lunch.

"There's lots of research to show that kids are better behaved and have bigger appetites," Peters said of the schedule switch.

The set-up has been well received by teachers, she said.

"The teachers like it because it's much cleaner in the classrooms," said Peters. "There's only one garbage pickup per day instead of two."

The principal emphasized the need for structure to keep a controlled and calm "café" rather than noisy, unruly "cafeteria" atmosphere in the room. Even though students must sit as a class with their peers, round tables facilitate quiet conversation and "this way everyone can engage," she said.

Adding to the "kind dining experience" is a focus on showing consideration for others by cleaning up messes and using good table manners, Peters said.

Rounding out the students' café experience is a structured activity such as guessing, word or patterning games during the final eight minutes of the lunch period.

In the works are plans to obtain a public address system to air classical music and offer students a forum to read their own writing to their peers during the final minutes of lunch period.

Atmosphere was an important consideration in the design of the café.

Vicki Sheskin, Hawley's art teacher, led the design team comprised of Hawley parents Kris Cotton, Paula Hughes and Ann Hitchcock.

"The process of brainstorming was a lot of fun," said Sheskin, adding that the group had to look for bright and cheerful but not "wild" colors in paints and fabrics.

It was also a big learning experience where they learned a lot about fire codes and fireproofing fabric, she said. But ultimately they were just "trying to make the café experience fun for the kids," Sheskin said.

Also crucial to the design was incorporation of the Newtown Public School's Core Character Attributes adopted by the district this year. Perseverance, citizenship, caring, trustworthiness, respect and responsibility were incorporated into "The Giving Tree", a design acquired from Arizona artist Jeff Jones.

Fourth grader Trent Ginty summed up the general feelings of those seated at his table. 

"I think it's better and bigger," he said. "You don't have to eat in your classroom. I think it's nice because it's colorful."