Juniors used to be able to leave the school for an open lunch. About 7 years ago, in 2008, that policy was withdrawn. Since then, only seniors have been able to leave the school on their lunch hour, everyone else having to stay in the cafeteria. But then we got a new principal, and with him came new ideas and the possibilities of old opportunities. After a proposal was taken to the taken to the Board of Education (BOE) in recent months, the idea seems to have been denied.

   The new MHS principal, Brad Plackemeier, was transferred here from MMS. When he came, he had the idea of looking for incentives for good behavior, kind of like the Public Behavior Rewards at MMS.

   While talking to the Student Council, looking for reward possibilities, junior open lunch came up. Plackemeier said “I’m all for it.”

   Plackemeier took his proposal to the BOE, and they decided to look into it, and get back to Plackemeier. They wanted to see if it would affect budget or grades in good or bad ways. The BOE has not requested a date to revisit the proposal, meaning we still haven’t heard anything back.

   On October 1st, I called Brad Berg and Kim Janzen, both BOE members.

   Berg said that he didn’t know much about it and didn’t know any proposal have been presented. In an email, he told me he has had to miss a few meeting over the past few months.

   Janzen said, to her understanding, the proposal had been withdrawn.

   It seems to me that the BOE has made a decision without notifying our MHS administration. As far as I can tell, the open lunch for juniors has been ultimately denied.

   The  proposed eligibility rules are the follows:

• Any junior with no referrals or attendance violations can go to open lunch.

• Any junior passing all of their classes can go to open lunch.

                                     -Every 3 weeks, these requirement will be checked to make sure you are still eligible.

      Proposed requirements will only have to be met by the junior class. Nothing will change for seniors.
Maybe one day open junior lunch will come to light, but for now the status quo will remain intact.