Board considers limited open-campus lunches

PALMER — Local area high schools have had closed campus for lunch since 1995, when a change in policy citing concerns over afternoon absenteeism and student safety was passed by the school board.

Now, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District School Board is considering a limited open-campus lunch for juniors and seniors who have a 3.0 GPA or above, parental permission, and no suspensions or drug infractions in the previous year.

The school board is set to take up the issue at its regular meeting tonight (Dec. 21). The school district formally closed its online survey requesting community input on the change yesterday.

Catherine Esary, public information officer for the district, said it had reached out to local chambers of commerce as well seeking their input on the change.

Currently, some students are allowed to go off-campus for lunch, she said, if they are traveling from one school to another for optional programs. In that case, students can have parents sign them out for an extended lunch travel period, and they can pick up food on the way.

Esary said the board will consider all public input in its decision making. She said the board may or may not make a decision on the issue at its Dec. 21 meeting, but any member of the public may attend and comment.

The Frontiersman reached out to readers on social media to ask what they thought about the proposed change in policy. Some supported the change, citing benefits to students and local businesses.

Kim Mattison, who said she attended Colony High during part of her junior year and Chugiak High for the rest of high school, compared her experiences at the two schools, where Chugiak had an open-campus lunch and Colony was closed-campus.

“It was really nice to get to run home or (out) for lunch,” she wrote. “It teaches responsibility, because you had to be back for your next class. Colony was closed from the time school started, it felt like a jail. Kids who have every moment planned for them, do not grow up having good management skills.”

A handful of people questioned the 3.0 GPA requirement, citing students with learning disabilities and others who might be responsible, good kids but not academically high performers who would be unfairly left out of the limited open-campus lunch.

“I do have an issue with the 3.0 GPA as kids with learning issues might not be able to attain that,” Mariah Jerman, a Palmer High alumnus said. “A 2.0 is all that is needed to play sports. It should be the same.”

Christy Kepler, another Palmer High alumnus, said, “Our upperclassmen should be allowed to show they are responsible and capable of enjoy(ing) lunch off campus, by following any rules brought forth and respecting local businesses. This group of students are less than a year or two away from graduating and becoming legal adults, I think we owe them the opportunity to enjoy a nice lunch break. We can also reserve the right to revoke the privilege if it’s abused.”

Others expressed concern about unsupervised teens.

Natalie Butts, a Big Lake resident originally from Snohomish, WA, said her experiences with open-campus lunch in high school tilts her against it.

“I do not recommend it,” she said. “We rarely went back after lunch. With this valley’s drug epidemic it could be a nightmare, one kid OD’s or is (in) a huge car accident at lunch, when their parent thought they were at school.”

Butts also questioned the burden on staff when it comes to tracking which students have parental permission and a high-enough GPA for the privilege, and which don’t.

The school board is slated to take up the issue at its meeting tonight, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. at the district’s central offices, at 501 north Gulkana in Palmer, behind Swanson Elementary.