Monona Grove Board Of Education Meets Tonight.

The Board of Education will meet tonight at 7 pm in the District Office. The full agenda can be found here.
Some items of note:

The discussion and possible approval of renewal or nonrenewal of contract with Chartwells School Dining Services for provision of food service for 2011-2012. We have received numerous emails from our food service workers supporting the nonrenewal of Chartwells contract with the district. Business Services Director Jerrod Rossing did a suberb job of soliciting student feedback on the changes to our district's lunch program (specifically at the highschool and GDS) and Chartwell's offerings were universally panned. I haven't been a fan of the program from the start; their colloboration with local farmers seems to be limited to Sysco Foods, lunches looked unappetizing and tiny, and the "all-the-fruit-and-vegetables-you-care-to-eat" wasn't all that they had touted. Once I found out that Chartwells considered canned fruit to be a fresh fruit option, my camel's back broke. I have to say that Chartwells did a nice job of trying to address the district's concerns,  but their program is not saving the district money and not making our kids or our food service staff happy. Time to go.

Also under new business is the discussion and possible approval of a children's garden at Winnequah Elementary. Several parents, Erin Staver, Chris Marsh, Carrie Howes and Maggie Baum,  have done an absolutely stellar job of putting together a comprehensive proposal for this. Anyone who knows me or reads my blog knows that I LOVE gardening, community gardens, edible landscapes etc. etc. I'm all in and I love this proposal. I hope that we can develop a user agreement and nail down other details soon.

Old business consists of ongoing discussion and possible approval of proposed budget reductions.

In the consent agenda, I would like to thank the Monona Elementary PTO for their donation of $920.37 to Winnequah School and the GDS PTO for their donation of $1,970.00 for the development of the GDS Prairie for a sign and guest speaker.

I would also like to thank Board member Jill List for her service on the MG School Board. Tonight will be her last meeting and I wish her well! Thanks Jill!

Wednesday Night: A Couple Of Meetings.

This Wednesday evening, January 26, will be a busy one at the District Office. The Business Services committee will meet at 5pm in the district board room. Business Services Director Jerrud Rossing will provide updates on, among other things, our 2011-2012 budget reduction process and the Maywood and Winnequah consolidation. Rossing will also present his results from a food service survey he conducted with our middle school and MGHS students regarding their satisfaction with the food service program that the district is currently contracting with Chartwells. I suppose I should wait to pass judgement until hearing the presentation tomorrow evening, but after paging through the survey results, it sure doesn't sound like our students are enjoying the switch to Chartwells. When asked if the food looks appetizing, 64.1% of highschoolers surveyed responded it needed improvement. 57.3% indicated that the variety of food choices needed improvement, and an unbelievable 70.7% of students said that overall the food needs improvement, period. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Chartwells.
I've been thinking a lot about how good nutrition can have an amazing effect on student achievement. Does anyone remember the wonderful success story in Appleton many years ago when their Alt. School switched their food service to a partnership with Natural Ovens Bakery? Refresh your memory here and here. Still pretty exciting stuff over a decade later. I would love to be able to afford to have this same type of program here in the district.
The Board of Education will also meet Wednesday evening in closed session to discuss the current state of contract negotiations with the MGEA.