On Tuesday, the Durango School District 9-R board stepped into lunch policy. It did this because, in April, its Miller Middle School posted a sign saying students who owed small amounts of lunch money would be served reduced lunches for the rest of the year.
Then Robyn Baxendale, a Miller educator, raised money on Facebook to pay the lunch debt. All would have been well, or at least better, if we stopped there; but next, a 9-R administrator disparaged Baxendale’s effort (“No lunch for you: School district can’t leave well enough alone,” April 25).
On Tuesday, Superintendent Dan Snowberger told the board the fundraiser was a bad idea because Facebook charges high fees. He might have checked first. Baxendale paid $19.36 on $560 raised, about 3.5 percent.
Deputy Superintendent Andy Burns told the board the district could serve partial lunches to students more discreetly.
That is not the problem we want 9-R administrators to fix.
The problem is not that the administration was embarrassed by the sign or the fundraiser.
Figure out how to serve every student, including serving every student a full lunch, and we will not even have to get to your dignity later because you will be doing what educators, even administrators, and especially education leaders, are charged with doing. Dignity comes from duty discharged.
Snowberger also told the board that putting up the Miller sign violated a district policy – about signs, apparently.
We are more concerned with the district’s lunch policies. So, too, was the board Tuesday, which is a good beginning.
