By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Three elementary school students at Westside Elementary School took a Hays Post reporter on a tour this week to explain their new family-style lunch program.
Westside school serves elementary through high school students who have emotional or behavioral issues that make it difficult for them to attend full days at their home schools. The students receive extra support at the school with the goal of transitioning them back to their home classrooms.
The students used to be bused to other schools for lunch.
One boy showed the reporter where he helps cut fruit for lunch. A second-grader read the question of the day that the students talk about during lunchtime with their peers and teachers.
The day's question was, "What's your favorite thing to do when it snows outside?"
A second grader talked about his high school friend that used to sit with him at lunch. That student is back at Hays High School full-time now, but the students still write notes to each other, and the HHS student visits for lunch occasionally.
The students were also excited to open a large drawer in the office that contained candy, coupons, trading cards and small toys that they can earn for positive behavior.
The students can turn in their positive behavior notes called "You did it slips" into a jar in the office after lunch.
The boys dug through the jar. One slip said you followed staff directions by staying calm. Another boy read his slips "staying quiet" and another "completing math."
The school received a $10,000 donation from the Robert E. and Patricia A Schmidt Foundation to purchase food service equipment and folding circle tables to allow students to eat lunch family-style at the school.
The folding tables allow the space to be used for other programs throughout the day.
The program launched at the beginning of the school year.
"I love all our students, but sometimes our students with their trauma and back history, they feel better in chaos than being calm. We see great things happening," Lindy McDaniel, assistant special education director, said of the lunch program.
Younger students are paired with high school students to be friends at meals.
An older student helping a younger student at the lunch table can be a big step for both students, she said.
"We also have those little bursts of 'this feels really uncomfortable to be a leader or to do loving things,' so we are working through that process with a lot of the kids," McDaniel said.
"I would say at lunch every day, there is a shining moment of, wow, that's something they didn't do at the beginning of the year," she said.
McDaniel cited research that showed students who feel purpose are more likely to come to school. This has been born out this year at Westside with increased attendance since the family-style meal program was implemented.
"Some of our kids if they have had a path of education where they were pretty dysregulated when they were younger and didn't have positive lunch experiences or positive school experiences, this gives them an opportunity to redo some of that through their younger peers," McDaniel said.
"We've had a student say, 'I was little Johnny when I was little. I screamed and kicked and did those things, and I want to help.'"
The students have five minutes before and after they eat their lunch to talk or play tic-tac-toe or a quick round of Pictionary.
The younger students, work on basic manners, such as "Please pass the ketchup." and "May I be excused?"
The donation pays for up to four adults to eat with the children to help build relationships with adults as well. Staff members eat regularly with the students, but the school has also brought in police officers and Superintendent Ron Wilson.
McDaniel said she also would like to have teachers from the students' home schools and even peers eat with the students at Westside in the future.
Although some of the Westside students already eat lunch with their peers at their home schools, the program is a good alternative for students who have days they struggle with their emotional regulation, McDaniel said.
The program also saves instruction time as the students don't have to be bused to other schools in the district to eat lunch.