I love the calendar conundrum. It’s like a massive puzzle with a lot of changing parts, and we have to fit a certain number of pieces into a particular number of days. Every once in a while I think about the high school calendar, and I want to go into a chocolate coma. Those are ridiculous.

Our schedule includes eight weekly after-school activities,15-20 nighttime performances, eight out of school performances, vision screening, hearing screening, four to eight in school performances, the musical, AP testing, State testing, PCCRs (Counseling), Chalk Art Festivals, Assemblies (both required and not required), field trips, Parent Teacher Night, Hot Dog Roasts, and district competitions. That’s just what I can rattle off for the blog post.

We also have soccer, lacrosse, Junior Jazz, AAU, and district rentals which includes a wide variety of other events. If you are still reading, you are a glutton for punishment.

I share this not only to show part of what I do but more about the physical role of a school in the community itself. Schools are built for and by the community. Without the support of our local community, our school would cease to function in its current role.

Unnamed Incidents

At times, I will refer to incidents that I can’t give specific details to and always want to keep things professional and private. As you can imagine, with 1230 students, we are bound for some down days, not only revolving around our students but also their closest influences. Parents, siblings, and other family members have a significant impact on our students.

Just like “a rising tide lifts all boats,” a “lowering tide grounds all boats.” Again, without going into details, when things at home aren’t good, usually things with the students aren’t good. We do see the rare occasion, but it is rare.

Also, for future reference, Utah law requires any person who has reason to believe that a child has been subjected to abuse, neglect, or dependency to immediately notify the nearest office of Child and Family Services, a peace officer, or a law enforcement agency. Abuse, neglect, or dependency of a child can be physical, emotional, or sexual.

I made a few calls as a teacher, and as an administrator make them more regularly.

Lines 1 & 2

Systems usually work because a system was created to solve a specific problem or perform a specific task. Our lunch process is a pretty good system.

We have 1250 students and 50 teachers who eat either home lunch or school lunch in approximately 90 minutes. This time grossly underestimates the amount of work and effort by our staff and families that order/shop for the food/groceries to make the food. (I’ll post on that another time)

Today we tried something different. Our amazing lunch manager decided to try and speed up our current system. This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Imagine going home tomorrow to realize that your spouse had rearranged each one of your kitchen drawers a space to the right or left. Exactly.

Some background- We know down to 5 or six kids which lunches sell better than others, and how much food we need to order on a given week or meal plan. Well, when I say we, I mean we as a school (The lunch manager) and not me as an administrator. Typically, we have two Ala Carte lines, one main line, pizza/potato line, a salad line, and a sandwich line. Pretty typical for a middle school cafeteria.

Stay with me.

Today we had Terakyi Chicken one of the most popular meals on our menu. Typically this line will have 250-300 kids who want to order. If each student takes 60 seconds to get lunch, the last student will only get about 15 minutes to eat lunch. Not ideal. And not a good system.

We added Teriyaki Chicken Bowls to both lines 1 & 2 today. By doubling our production, we were able to get all of the kids through the lunch line in less than ten minutes. This means happier students, happier lunch staff (they can get ready for the next lunch), and happier teachers because the students are on time because they have enough time to eat and socialize.

A closer look at a good system made it better for everyone. I appreciate that our lunch manager was willing to take (for her) a risk and try something new. My challenge for you is to take a small risk today to make a good system better.