Board of Education to consider proposal to allow open-campus privilege.
By: Gwen Runkle
Should seniors at West Windsor-Plainsboro High Schools North and South be allowed to leave school for lunch?
Students at both high schools say yes and have developed an open-campus lunch proposal that will be presented to the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School Board of Education tonight.
The school board will meet at the Thomas R. Grover Middle School at 7:30 p.m. and is expected to discuss the issue, but will not take action on the measure until May 28 at the earliest.
"This has all come through the students," said Doug Eadie, assistant principal at High School North. "It’s something the kids have always wanted and talked about for the past several years. Now they finally got organized enough to put it all together."
The proposal, which was developed by the student councils of both high schools, calls for seniors to be granted the open-campus privilege if they maintain a 2.0 or better unweighted grade point average and have no disciplinary or attendance problems.
Tardiness, cutting class or breaking any school or local laws will immediately result in the loss of the open-campus privilege, according to the proposal.
All seniors wishing to participate would have to get permission slips signed by a parent or guardian and approved students would have to sign both in and out when leaving and returning from lunch, the proposal says.
Approved students would also have a symbol embossed on the corner of their student identification cards, which would be checked randomly by security aides. Student Council representatives could also be stationed to check identifications if need be.
Should a student lose the open-campus privilege, the corner of the identification card would be cut off.
If an unapproved student leaves the school, a series of penalties would kick in. First offense would bring one Saturday suspension. Second offense would bring two days’ out-of-school suspension and third offense would be referred to an assistant principal.
If an approved student leaves school without the proper identification, he or she would have to serve one Saturday suspension.
So far, the proposal has received support from the high schools’ Campus Life Committee, Parent Teacher Associations, administrators and Superintendent John Fitzsimons.
According to Mr. Eadie, parent reaction has generally been mixed.
"You always have the one side that feels their child is responsible enough to go out and the other that feels safer knowing where their child is all day in school," he said. "There are two schools of thought, but you’d probably get that in any district."
According to Gerri Hutner, district spokeswoman, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District has never had an open-campus lunch policy before, unlike nearby schools in Lawrence and Princeton.
Should the board decide to try the pilot open-campus program, seniors could be eating during their 40-minute lunch at local pizzerias or delis as soon as next month, Ms. Hutner said.
"Or the school board could decide to wait and implement the program at the beginning of next year," she added.
In other business, the school board is expected to discuss whether students could be allowed to stay at the Upper Elementary School in Plainsboro for fifth grade come September instead of having to move to the Village School in West Windsor as called for under the recently approved elementary grade configuration plan.
Ms. Hutner said about 100 families could opt to stay at the Upper Elementary School.
The school board is also expected to discuss the evaluation of the district’s kindergarten-through-12th-grade science program and review the policy governing the administration of medication in school.