Superintendent's Roundtable Brings Problems to Light; Offers Some Solutions

Following a bevy of complaints from parents of Sayville elementary level students, school administrators are now reviewing the 10-minute reduction in lunchtime for youngsters implemented at the start of the current school year. An analysis of the time reduction is expected to be presented at the board of education meeting Thursday.

Concerned parents, teachers and even school district food service workers expressed a number of concerns at a Superintendent's Roundtable Tuesday night. Some parents said their children were unable to finish their lunches, teachers complained about losing classroom instruction time and one member of the cafeteria staff said they are rushed to make sure students receive their lunches in a timely manner.

At the roundtable, many parents took the microphone to talk about how the reduced lunchtime has had an impact on their children. "I have a fifth grader who works hard and just needs that extra time for an emotional and mental break," one parent said. "I also have a kindergartener who just needs that much time to eat."

A member of the kitchen staff from Sunrise Elementary School noted the staff is "very rushed" when working to get lunches to the students. "It's very difficult to even get the prep work done between periods," the staff member said. "And I have a window to the cafeteria and I can tell you that a lot of lunches are going in the garbage."

The reduction in the time allotted for elementary level students for lunch and recess is a direct result of budget cuts, said Dr. Walter Schartner, school superintendent. There was a spending increase of 1.8 percent from 2009-2010 to 2010-2011. There was also a reduction in state aid of 5 percent, which caused the tax rate increase of 5.9 percent (which was actually 3.92 percent after the Town of Islip set the tax rate). New York State reduced Sayville's state aid by 1.77 percent after the community approved the budget leaving a shortage in revenue in the budget this year.

As a result, there is a greater need to share staff members between the elementary and secondary levels. "We now have shared physical education, special education, librarians, and music teachers," he said.

With allotted shared staff, the elementary principals said that they could not schedule 50-minute periods. Since 40 minutes is the length of the "specials" period, lunch was shortened to accommodate scheduling issues. "A lot of scheduling goes into this with the allotted shared staff," Schartner added.

The superintendent said elementary school principals looked at the schedules in June and then again in August and 50-minute lunch periods were not possible with current staff levels. "I have been to all three elementary schools during lunchtime and the one thing I didn't see were children being rushed to eat," Schartner said. "Some kids did take longer and they were given a spot to finish. And yes, it did impact their recess. But nobody was throwing out their lunch."

But Tim Southerton, president of the Sayville Teachers Association, disagreed with Schartner's assessment of lunchtime at the elementary schools. "When you [Dr. Schartner] go into a cafeteria, you are not going to get the same boots on the ground feeling that the teachers do," he said. "Your very presence there makes them behave differently. I would categorize the cutting of recess time as a mistake."

The board of education asked Schartner for an analysis of how the reduced lunchtime is impacting students, the findings of which are expected to be presented at this month's board meeting.

"It's all about choices – it's your community, it's your kids," Schartner said. "If we have to cut further, it may become less electives."

In the meantime, the superintendent said parents could call school principals to schedule at time to visit local schools to watch their kids eating habits.

Also addressed at the roundtable was a concern that the Sayville School District—as well as most in New York State—is not in compliance with the physical education requirement. Parents felt taking yet another 10 minutes away made matters worse. However, recess time does not count in assessing if schools are meeting physical education requirements, administrators said.

The solution, according to Dr. Geraldine Sullivan-Keck, assistant superintendent, is periodic activities of integrated movement. "New York State did an audit and most school districts are in the same position as us," she said. "There is a strong suggestion for integrated movement – short bursts of movements which are shown to help the brain learn new things and retain that information. The integrated movement program would be developed under the coordination of the physical education teachers. The teachers and the parents have expressed a strong concern about the cutting of the lunch/recess time and we have heard your requests and we are addressing them."

She added, "Not every child moves at recess. In order to meet the state mandate (eight added minutes of movement a day), we will be submitting a plan shortly. The situation with the shortened lunch times actually helped to bring this program to fruition."

Other items brought to the table included the inconsistency in class size and the new state cut scores, which resulted in 226 more students in grades 4 through 9 receiving Academic Intervention Services.

Check back with Sayville Patch for coverage of these topics as well as possible solutions to the shortened lunchtime problem.