Upperclassmen enjoy off campus privileges

A change in the school lunch period has been implemented.
Now replacing the 45 minute lunches last year are shorter, 36 minute lunches. The two shorter lunches are a result of not meeting the state’s requirements for the hours that the school is required to be in session.
The school also opened the option of off campus lunch for juniors and seniors as long as they have their parents permission. The students’ parents had to sign a permission slip which holds the student accountable for all his or her actions off campus.
When it came to deciding how to schedule the school hours, the administrators made sure they had the required amount of time to be spent in classes.
“We added one minute to the first three classes,” assistant principal Peter Braveboy said.
Fourth through seven periods were lengthened by three minutes. The minutes that were added to each of the classes came from the 45 minute lunch.
“What was left [minutes] went to lunch,” Braveboy said.
As a result of the shorter lunch, there were some problems. Second lunch was overcrowded with students, so the administrators worked with the counselors to rearrange schedules and moved people around. These students were moved to first lunch.
Some students suggested making a third lunch, but Braveboy doesn’t find three lunches necessary.
“If they move quickly, they will have plenty of time to eat,” Braveboy said. “People like to play around, and that slows the process down.”
Braveboy suggests that students take 15 minutes to go through the line. Once the students have their food, they have a remaining 21 minutes to eat, which is more than enough time.

Open Campus Possible For Rider’s Future

Every day for lunch, kids hurry to their cars so they can fill up on fast food. This year there has been quite the buzz on Rider having an open or closed lunch. Where the rumor started, no one knows, but whether students do or do not leave for lunch, Rider is still a closed campus.

However, that could eventually change.

Principal Judy McDonald and the site based decision team met just before school started, where they discussed having a flexible lunch. The site based decision team is a committee of teachers, parents, and community members who create ideas to help improve the school. McDonald then proposed this idea to the school action plan. The school action plan takes the ideas from the site based team and puts them into action.

Superintendent Dr.George Kazanas said that in no time soon Rider will have open lunch privileges, but that the site based team will observe the lunches to see if there is reason to change. Several things are taken into consideration when deciding to change a school policy, such as how it will affect the students and quality of education.

“In general our campus is closed due to time, along with safety issues and the economic impact on the cafeteria,” Dr. Kazanas said.

Since no official decisions have been made and no rules have been established, the site based team is still considering many options for a movement toward an open lunch one day.

“I want the school to be as innovative as possible with their decision,” Dr. Kazanas said.

Assistant principal Monte Thacker said some of the discussion for a potential open lunch has included rules that could resemble those of advisory period, such as only applying to juniors and seniors who are in good standing.

However, at this point this is all simply discussion. Rider remains a closed campus for now.

“I understand why students leave,” Thacker said.”We just have to enforce the rules.”