Three lunches at Northview
Northview High transitions to a three lunches schedule this school year
Graphic by Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor
Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor & Liana Sabnani, Staff Writer
Northview High School implemented multiple safety initiatives this year, one of which is the addition of a new lunch period. Northview was one of the last schools in Fulton County to implement three lunches. The reason is because the school staff has been working towards averting students from violence in order to be more safe in school.
“We have noticed less horseplay in the hallways, and everybody has a place to go now,” Assistant Principal Christi Bounds said. “Last year, lunches were so big that there wasn't always room for everybody. That's our biggest concern, making sure everyone is safe and everyone has a place to be.”
Not only is there reduced violence and a smaller cafeteria crowd, but the school has seen other benefits from this implementation. The Northview staff have noticed reduced hallway traffic and students have been able to maintain a cleaner school. Resource officers, including James Newman, brought up the idea of adding another lunch due to occurrences from last school year.
“They're trained to look at worst-case scenarios. You're looking at six or seven adults [and] 800 students. It's not a good ratio,” Principal Martin Neuhaus said. “So primarily, [this] was done to reduce the number of students at lunch so we could all fit in the cafeteria.”
The school leadership team is still working to make the most suitable combination of classes for each lunch. B lunch happens during the middle of the fourth period, which creates an area of challenge when it comes time to take assessments.
“It’s hard to start an assessment and then go to lunch and then come back. There are [also] certain assessments you can't just break up and have space in the middle,” Neuhaus said. “Those are logistics that continuously need to be improved.”
Teachers who have B lunch have had to adjust to this complication. Classes that have B lunch include social studies, world languages, and CTAE classes. The teachers for those classes have a difficult time figuring out a way to conduct assessments, and sometimes even labs in CTAE classes.
“It definitely creates a big challenge with the delivery of assessments. And then I also do a lot of labs, labs that take up most of the class time, so stopping them in the middle can often be very awkward,” Micheal Barber, healthcare teacher, said.
Besides teachers, students at Northview have also expressed their voices on this change since students now generally have less freedom with the hallways closed off. Additionally, the new lunch period shortened the lunch times. Junior Hannah Eapen explained how lunch may feel more rushed now.
“Last year, if I had to go do a quiz for a teacher during lunch or help out a teacher with something, I would come back and we would still have half of lunch left,” Eapen said. “I took a test last week during lunch and it took the entire time.”
However, as this year is the first year to transition to the three-lunch schedule, the school is still adjusting with consistent improvements to the lunch schedule as the year continues. The three lunches will continue unless adjustments need to be made again.
“I like three [lunches] because it's safe and we're keeping our building cleaner. I would be open to going back to two if we are being safe and clean. It’s hard to have too many students.” Neuhaus said.
