As of April 17, Dan Schmidt is no longer a member of the NRHEG school board, but has instead become the district’s Transportation Site Manager. The position, which, like the district-wide management positions for food services and buildings and grounds, is new this year, will have Schmidt in charge of matters to do with bus drivers and routes, bus safety and maintenance, and bus garage operation and organization.
The board voted both to accept Schmidt’s resignation and to instate him in the transportation position during the meeting. Other resignations accepted April 17 were those of secondary-level math teacher Susan Schaub and the retirements of business teacher Lise Weegman and language arts teacher Deb Bently.
A report shared by district food services manager Sara Meihak revealed that the department is apparently having a successful year. Meihak described “farm to table” practices which, she said, have been among the factors which have resulted in increased popularity for school meals. Locally grown foods have been purchased from rural Janesville’s RCR farms, and have been raised by students in the school greenhouse. In addition to providing fresher, better-tasting food, Meihak said, the programs have allowed the food services program to receive more than $55,000 in grants to cover the costs for acquiring it.
This change and others have led to an increase of more than 10,000 meals (breakfasts and lunches) over last year’s numbers, even though all student meals were free last year thanks to federal Covid support.
Meihak also described a number of new initiatives in her department. For example, parents of elementary students can go online to order birthday treats to be delivered to their child’s classroom, and can pay for the service through their lunch accounts. The elementary site now also offers a “healthy snack cart.” Thanks to funding from grants, the department can also occasionally offer smoothies and lattes.
Meihak also shared pictures of decorations set up to mark specific holidays, including a “haunted” lunch line at the elementary site on Halloween. The meal that day was among the most popular of the year, she joked, at least partly because “every kid wanted to go through that line.”
Also included in the report was that students who have received “food safe” training through the school Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) program have helped with the preparation and serving of school lunches. “The elementary kids really love it when they come over,” she observed.
She also mentioned that taste tests and “homemade/from scratch” initiatives have been added to the program.