
DATE: Thursday, March 20, 1997              TAG: 9703200316

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   88 lines

LUNCH COMES EARLY AT SUFFOLK SCHOOLS RISING ENROLLMENT AND A BUDGET CRUNCH FORCES LUNCH SHIFTS TO START AS EARLY AS 10.

It's about 10:15 on a weekday morning. That means it's already lunchtime at Forest Glen Middle School.

``It's too early,'' says sixth-grader Erica Daughtrey, nonetheless gobbling a bag of chips she brought from home. ``Because it's like two hours ago that we ate breakfast.''

When people in this and other rapidly growing cities talk about rising student enrollment and crowded schools and budget crunches, they're talking about children like Erica.

The students at Forest Glen take classes in mobile classrooms. They share lockers.

And they eat lunch in shifts that begin in mid-morning - some special-education students at Forest Glen start eating at 10 a.m. - and continue through early afternoon, because everyone can't fit into the cafeteria at once.

That means some eat way early, and some eat way late. But being kids, they generally still eat.

``It's OK,'' says Kelly Hightower, sitting at a back table with Erica. Still, Kelly's home-packed sandwich sits untouched in front of her. She's not usually hungry by this time of day, she explains.

Eating early means the rest of the day stretches long and uninterrupted by food. ``When I get home, I usually fix myself a sandwich,'' Kelly says.

``Me, too,'' adds Erica.

While Erica, Kelly and peers across Suffolk eat lunch early, the City Council is considering - and balking at - a $127.7 million building plan for new schools in the next five years.

The plan was proposed by the School Board to ease the crowding that necessitates such lunch schedules. Council members have said that they can't ask city residents to swallow the higher property-tax rate - 20 to 30 cents higher than the base rate of $1.03 per $100 of assessed value - such a plan would require.

Far from such debates, children line up for lunch at an hour when you'd expect some to still have breakfast Pop-tart crumbs on their lips.

``Sometimes you still want to eat, and sometimes you don't,'' says Anthony Washington, 13. This morning, he and three friends aren't eating, although two gulp chocolate milk.

And so it goes.

``You're not really hungry,'' says Kevin Hemperley, 11. He says this while munching powdered-sugar doughnuts from a snack machine. ``About the time you get home, you're starving. You can't wait for dinner.''

``I like it early because I don't eat breakfast on weekdays,'' counters Carolyn Williams, 11. ``I don't have time.''

``I think it should be later,'' says Paul Carr, 13. ``It should be 12 o'clock. . . . That's how you eat it on weekends.''

Toni Bernardin, 12, doesn't think lunch comes early enough, ``Because I was in third period, and my stomach was growling.''

``I don't have any complaints from any kids,'' says Margaret E. ``Peggy'' Bailor, the cafeteria manager at Forest Glen who oversees six separate lunch shifts. ``They're hungry when they get here.''

Students adjust. So do their teachers.

Linda F. O'Connell, a special-education teacher, has been eating on the first shift since classes began in September. This day, it means digging into baked chicken, a baked potato and green beans a little after 10 a.m.

``I don't mind it,'' O'Connell says. ``I just eat dinner early. I've gotten used to it.''

A snack during her afternoon planning period helps tide her over, and she's even adjusted her home eating schedule to earlier lunches and dinners.

But the parent side of her worries about her daughter, Kimberly, a fourth-grader at another crowded Suffolk school, Kilby Shores Elementary. Kimberly eats lunch as late as 1:30 p.m., some 6 1/2 hours after her breakfast.

``We have to do it,'' O'Connell shrugs.

Next year, Forest Glen's sixth-graders will get to eat lunch closer to, well, lunchtime. But being sixth-graders, sometimes other things are more important.

Slightly built Linwood Wiggins, 11, eats breakfast, but he says early lunch is still OK with him, because he eats a lot.

``But I don't grow,'' he sighs. ILLUSTRATION: Jimmy Butts, 11, eats lunch during an early shift at

Forest Glen Middle School. The packed school has six separate lunch

shifts.

RICHARD L. DUNSTON

The Virginian-Pilot

"It's too early," says sixth-grader Erica Daughtrey of her early

lunch schedule at Forest Glen, "because it's like two hours ago that

we ate breakfast."