By Greg Kottcamp, Assistant Principal
When do students eat lunch? D’Evelyn currently has two lunches. The first lunch period is from 10:25-10:55 and the second lunch is from 11:20-11:50. A student has first or second lunch depending on what level of the building their fourth period class is located. For example, a student that has a music class during 4th period would have first period lunch because the music classrooms are on the first floor. If a student has a social studies class for 4th period, they would be assigned the second lunch period. In order to keep some departments from always having the early lunch, we rotate which floor has which lunch. This year is the easy one to remember, first floor eats during first lunch and second floor eats during second lunch. Taking care of business before lunch: Some students go to their lockers before lunch to get either their lunch or books for the next class period. Other students go straight to the cafeteria to get a spot near the front of the lunch line. We encourage students to take care of their business before lunch because we don’t allow students to roam the hallways during lunch, as other classes are still in session. Students that need to go to counseling, the main office, or to the library to print something, should do so at the start of lunch. Where do students eat? Students can eat in the cafeteria, senior lounge area, courtyard tables, or in the Library Commons. The Library Commons is for students that want a silent place to eat and work on homework, not for socializing. What do students bringing a lunch from home need to know? Students who bring their own lunch either store their lunch in their backpack or locker. Thanks to the D’Evelyn Education Foundation, students have four microwaves and a hot water dispenser available for use. Many students bring sandwiches and a variety of snacks. Some bring leftovers or frozen meals that can be heated in the microwave. Some students use the hot water for making cup of noodles or some other dish requiring hot water. All we ask is that students use the microwaves responsibly, cleaning up any spills and treating other people’s food respectfully. How do students/parents pay for meals at school? Families that want to have students buy food at school can either set-up their Schoolcafe account or drop-off cash or a check with Ms. Cravotta in the cafeteria. Parents can navigate to the Schoolcafe website through the Family Portal or going directly to https://www.schoolcafe.com/JEFFCOSD. If families are making payments with cash or check, please be sure to drop off the payment in the cafeteria before the school day starts. When students try to add money to their account during lunch, it significantly slows down the lunch service for all the other students. Parents and students should work together to keep track of account balances. If families are using Schoolcafe, they can check the balance online and add money when needed. If families prefer to use cash or checks to make deposits to their student’s lunch account, the student will need to ask the cafeteria cashiers to check their balances. It is best to have students ask about account balances before their order has been rung-up. Cashiers do not tell students their balances unless they are asked by the students. If students come to the register and don’t have enough funds in their accounts, they can either return some of the food to stay within their balance, or they can charge a reimbursable meal to their account. A full reimbursable meal includes an entree, fruits, vegetables, and milk, and costs $3.50. The district system does not allow students to go negative in their account for a-la-carte items. When students charge a meal, and go negative with their account balance, a message is sent home to parents to let them know. How do the lunch lines work? When students come to the cafeteria, they can get into 1 of 4 lines. The two lines on the West side of the cafeteria are for junior high students, and the 2 lines on the East side are for high school students. We have tables and instructions at the start of each line informing students to take off their backpacks before entering the line. We also ask that only 4 students at-a-time be in the serving area. Students that are not purchasing lunch items, should not wait in line with their friends, as this creates congestion. Menus and costs are posted outside of each lunch line. When a student enters the serving area, they can select the items they want, or ask a cafeteria worker to retrieve an item. As they approach the cashier, they are expected to enter their Student ID into a keypad so as to bring up their account on the Cashier’s screen. Students can ask for their account balance at this time. The cashier will then ring-up the order, ask the student if they need anything else, and then tell them the total bill. Students are then free to find an area to eat. What happens during lunch and at the end of lunch? Most students find a few friends to eat lunch together. As for what they do in addition to eating, that can vary. We have kids that work on homework, read books, play outside, and catch-up with one another through conversation. We also have students that are on their phones during lunch, playing games, watching videos, or texting one another (not making phone calls). We expect them to use technology in accordance with Jeffco’s policy. We have a school administrator and two campus supervisors that help to supervise lunch times. Students are encouraged to talk to a lunch supervisor if they have any problems or questions. Students are expected to stay in the cafeteria or other eating areas until the bell rings. We want students to enjoy the full lunch period and not be waiting to run to their lockers. Other lunch information:
We can’t thank our cafeteria crew (Tina Chang, Kelly Cravotta, and Reiko Dobbin) enough for all the hard work that comes with preparing food for our students and staff and keeping them nourished throughout the year. Comments are closed.
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April 2023
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