Seattle parents push for schools to move student lunches outdoors
Aug 25, 2021, 7:40 AM | Updated: Sep 2, 2021, 11:47 am
A child puts her mask back on after finishing lunch at a socially distanced table. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Seattle parents are circulating a petition urging school officials to move student lunches outside.
Gov. Inslee mandates vaccines for all educators and staff
Students in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) are scheduled to return in-person to classrooms on Sept. 1. All educators and school staff are required to be fully vaccinated by mid-October, while masks will be required at all times.
While the district and teachers union recently came to terms on a tentative deal on larger COVID-19 safety measures, parents are expressing “deep concerns” over students eating lunch in indoor cafeterias. A small portion of Seattle schools plan to use large tents that will allow some students to eat outdoors, but that approach hasn’t been standardized at the district level.
“Fully outdoor lunches — a key, highly impactful COVID mitigation strategy — is [sic] not being supported across all SPS schools and is instead being decided at an individual school-by-school level,” the petition from parents says. “Having this important safety strategy handled at a school level risks creating significant health and education equity gaps as less-resourced schools may risk more frequent outbreaks and transmission due to a lack of space, resources (such as volunteer time and PTA funding), and advocacy tools to make fully outdoor lunches possible.”
Seattle school district, teachers reach tentative deal on COVID safety
Parents further voiced those concerns during a meeting with district leaders Tuesday. Moving forward, SPS indicated that it is “currently asking all school leaders to review their lunch plans and determine additional ways to extend physical distancing between students.”
The current plan for meals includes limiting the amount of time students are sitting at lunch, upgrading HVAC systems for indoor cafeteria areas, adding lunch periods to reduce the number of students eating at any given time, and staggering students to maximize physical distancing. Individual schools are required to communicate their own plans for meals to parents and students before Sept. 9.
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