Breakfast in school classrooms and a blended-style virtual school program were two items discussed at a workshop and later passed at the Suwannee County School Board meeting Tuesday.

K-5 students in Suwannee County will be able to eat breakfast in their classrooms when school begins in August. The opportunity is the result of a pilot program that was tested at the end of this past school year at Suwannee Primary School (SPS). The pilot program results conveyed that more kids ate breakfast if they were permitted to eat in their classroom.  

With regard to the SPS pilot program, Vickie Music-Depratter, Chief Financial Officer for Suwannee County Schools said, “The feedback from the food service director and from the cafeteria was that it was very positive and the children actually did engage in getting a breakfast.” 

The cost for the breakfast program increased the food budget, but does not effect the county’s out of pocket expenses. 

The District’s food service program is federally funded, explained Music-Depratter. 

Board members expressed differing views on the appropriation of federal money for additional food services.

The national debt is $18 trillion, Ronald White, representative for District 5, explained. 

“If we had to pay our debt today, thats $56,000 per person. Money coming from the federal government is not our money. It’s borrowing money, that’s what it is,” said White. “We need to make a stand for our country and our children to quit taking this federal money and things like this. This is gonna come back to bite us, because every dollar we take, we’re taking their freedom.”

Catherine Cason, representative for District 2 said, “When you have children coming to school hungry, education is the last thing on their mind. You have to balance it the best you can, because a hungry child is not concerned with reading, writing and arithmetic.” 

Lisa Dorris, Director of Food Services for Suwannee County Schools, said that during the pilot program at SPS, a cooler was wheeled to every class and was available during the morning bell. When the teacher took role, students could have milk, a breakfast bar and fruit.  

“The 25 teachers who participated said it brought calmness in the classroom and students were ready to learn from the get go,” said Dorris.

She explained that this will be the model for each K-5 school in the county. 

“There will be a form of grab and go for middle school and above,” Dorris said. 

Virtual school 

The School Board also chose to enhance the current Suwannee County virtual school program by adding an office at RiverOak Technical College (formerly Suwannee-Hamilton Technical Center), which will be staffed by a full time teacher. This will allow parents and students involved in the elementary level virtual school program a place to go if they need to see someone in person for help. 

“We would like to start our own elementary teacher position at Suwannee Virtual School. This is modeled after Polk County,” said Janene Fitzpatrick, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction for Suwannee County Schools.

The Polk County virtual school has been running for years. The kids take their classes online, but it’s really a true blended model because the parents can bring them in for face to face time, officials said. 

Fitzpatrick explained that most of the curriculum is completed at home, but a parent and child could have a one hour meeting with the teacher in person to get help on assignments.

“It is truly blended where most of it takes place at home, but there is that support,” said Fitzpatrick. “I think that’s a model that could appeal to a lot of our homeschool parents in our district that are already using Florida Virtual School.”