The Harding cafeteria staff is scrambling to keep up with all four lunch periods, a situation that began just this year.
Ever since Harding moved to the new building, there have been just three lunch periods. But that changed when, last April, Harding staff voted on a new bell schedule for the 2022-23 school year. The staff had two options to vote between, however, both schedules had four lunch periods. The ultimate decision to have four lunches was made by Ms. Musbach, but she says, “This decision was made [by] my staff…”
Musbach did indeed send a Google Form to Harding staff last spring, but it seems that many staff members were not able to fill it out. In a survey conducted of 27 current staff members, just 6 of them said they had participated in the vote. And of the 21 people who didn’t participate, at least 10 of them believe they weren’t given the option to. One staff member says, “I didn’t know there was a vote,” while another claims, “I wasn’t asked.”
According to Musbach, the decision to have four lunch periods was made because of growing enrollment each year. In the pretext on her Google Form, it’s written that “[The bell schedule changes] are directly related to offering a fourth lunch period…to accommodate increasing enrollment in the future.” With so many new kids flooding into the building, a fourth lunch period helps to make service more timely, so people aren’t waiting too long in the lunch line.
Most people are in agreement with this decision, but some cafeteria workers would rather have three lunch periods. “It’s just harder on us in the kitchen,” says Susie Duncan, a Harding employee for 16 years. “We just don’t have the extra time that we need…for cleaning up and stuff like that.”