The bell rings as the clock strikes 11:45. Lunch time for New Providence high schoolers. First just a few students that were close to the main doors trickle out, but soon what could almost be described as a mob heads for the QR code scanners to sign out and leave out the doors. A student’s allotted time to be out for lunch will continue to 12:48, at the sound of the second bell, signaling the beginning of the last two periods.
NPHS has run the current open lunch system for several years. Most students generally see it as a privilege to be able to leave campus freely during lunch every day, giving them a good break from school.
Students have the choice to freely leave for lunch or stay in every day. Leaving means scanning an individual student identification QR code, and going out of the main doors. Returning is the same process, just scanning back in.
Junior Colin McAloon, said: “I think it’s pretty cool because you have the option to go out and you could stay in if all your friends are staying in to do whatever your friends are doing.”
Students who can drive can also leave freely with their vehicles, as long as they are back in time for class. Some students utilize open lunch every day, and some don’t.
McAloon said: “sometimes we go out and sometimes we stay, it just depends on the day.”
This kind of open system for students leaving and entering campus can raise some questions on security and safety.
Assistant Principal Stephanie Kwiatkowski said: “In order for any student at any time to leave the school building, there needs to be parent permission. So a form goes out to parents and students and it’s expected that the students fill in the permission slip, which is a Google Form. That data gets collected right on the back end. It’s a spreadsheet that then our staff, our secretaries, myself, and Mr. Henry, can take a look at. From there we ensure that a parent has completed the form and then we make sure that students are in good standing and that there is nothing that would prevent them from having that privilege. And then at the start of the school year, we try to do it before the first day of school, we send an email directly to students with their QR code.”
Students are accountable for their actions off campus during lunch, but what they do cannot exactly be watched by the school. Kwiatkowski said, “I would say when it comes to incidents that occur when they’re off campus, they’re really handled by the parents. Unless it’s something that would pertain to us, then there could be discipline from our end because of something that’s happening at lunch, perhaps.”
The privilege comes with an expectation that students will adhere to attendance policies.
Nancy Randazzo, who works in attendance at NPHS, said, “when you see the numbers that check out and check back in, you see it’s pretty good. so I would say it’s about ninety five percent” on the amount of students who follow the rules given.
The system generally gives students freedom and flexibility to their own choices in the lunch period.
Randazzo said: “I think it gives them a fair amount of freedom and an ample amount of time. They’re able to go out and have some time, and it’s not a short time.”
The open lunch system is somewhat of a risk in its nature. Letting students go freely off campus for an hour and come back is something that isn’t usually expected when thinking of a high schooler’s schedule. But the way the system is managed in NPHS works. Students have plenty of freedom, time, and access, within a system of authorization that monitors who can leave and who can’t.