Give Your Feedback on CSD Menu Changes, Including the Chocolate Milk Ban
Decatur Metro | September 12, 2012City Schools of Decatur parents have until September 21st to take a survey regarding the 10 recent menu changes recently suggested by the Ultimate Menu Committee. It’s a pretty simple survey, basically asking parents if they’d like to “keep” or “eliminate” the various food items under consideration.
Changes include the much written about chocolate milk ban, which has found its way into the AJC and the Champion newspapers in the last week, but also muffins, pancakes, chicken nuggets and shrimp poppers.
As long as they replace the milk with beer, muffins with Revolution Donuts, pancakes with Nana G’s waffles, chicken nuggets with Taco Mac’s TMI – Swimming then I’m ok with it. (keep peanut butter btw)
Since I have no where else to put this, does anyone know how the grade scale works in kindergarten?
At the beginning of K kids who are where they should be will get 2’s or 3’s depending on the depth of their understanding or the level in which it was assessed. Usually 4’s are later in the year when the skill has been thoroughly taught and assessed. One’s might mean a child missed some tenet and may need some support if there is not progression from a 1 to a 2 in the next term or so. After my third K to go through I’m getting the hang of the 1-4 system!
I would have never accepted what I’m about to say when I had a kindergartener, so please forgive me: It doesn’t matter. I’ve seen many a grading system around here and from preK-8, it doesn’t matter (except that some systems confuse parents and even teachers more than others). MAP scores matter a lot–especially in terms of identifying true learning disabilities and getting services–whether they be “gifted” or “special” or nothing, I mean “typical”, services. High school grades count big time. Nothing else matters much and the scores from one grade to another may bear little resemblance or consistency. K-8 grades are a guide so that you know your child really is in class, the teacher really is teaching, someone is really paying attention to your child, and your child is not in deep trouble. They are very important as information about the material that is being taught (i.e. “the standards”) but do not particularly count or predict anything. Exception: All bottom scores all the time or all top scores all the time. Then something is up but I cannot tell you what. For behavioral issues or profound academic performance issues, the school will probably contact you. They want to make AYP and have smooth running classrooms. But watch the MAP scores for more subtle information. A bright child with low or widely divergent MAP scores may have a learning disability. In those cases, do not accept reassurance that your child is a wonderful, bright kid (you already knew that) but start exploring the issue quickly. The window of opportunity for interventions to work well is narrow and skewed towards younger children. Younger children get interventions and improvement; older children get remediation.
I don’t have kids but I’ll say this: If the chocolate milk ban passes, the Mayans were right
I have some kids you can have.
I consulted my kids while filling out the survey. It was hilarious and eye-opening. I highly recommend that CSD parents do that.
For better or worse, I learned:
– We all agree on getting rid of most of the highly processed and sugary items, they don’t taste good anyway.
– Chocolate milk is the only milk option that “doesn’t taste sour” according to Offspring #2. Offspring #1 confirmed that CSD “white milk” tends to taste a little past its prime.
– Chicken nuggets are not negotiable. A million desperate pleas were made to keep them. The bottom line seemed to be that they are the best menu items in the CSD cafeteria repertoire and no one wants to buy lunch anymore if there’s no hope for them.
– Shrimp and fish poppers do not have such loyalty and can go so it’s not just love of fried oil that is behind the nugget-love.
BTW, fantastic that there’s a parent survey to gauge parent reaction to the Ultimate Menu Committee’s recommendations. This is how a system charter should work.