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After a district-wide student walkout, a sudden delay, and many meetings with superintendents, the two-lunch schedule was implemented at all high schools in the Seattle Public School district last week, on Monday, October 6th.

With the goal of reducing long lunch lines, the following compromise schedule has been created: On all days except Wednesdays, half of students (lunch A) go to eat while the other half (lunch B) go to fourth period; then lunch A students have fourth period while lunch B students eat. On Wednesdays, the schedule remains as it was, and all students eat at the same time. 

The original plan was to implement the two-lunch schedule five days a week, starting on Monday, September 15th. High school students district-wide planned a walkout protest for the same day. Then, just three days before, the district suddenly informed families that the two-lunch schedule would be delayed until October 6th. If this was meant to deter students from walking out, it was ineffective. Hundreds of students across the district participated by leaving their schools at 11 am and bussing, light railing, or driving down to the district offices in SODO. Students gave speeches, brought signs, and turnout was inspiringly strong.

Furthermore, superintendent Fred Podesta proved willing to at least hear students out. After the walkout, seven student representatives were invited to meet with him, including Lincoln junior Cora Telzrow. According to her interview with LHS Lincoln Log (Lincoln’s student newspaper), the superintendent said they were open to adapting the two-lunch schedule to fit with each school’s individual needs. This resulted in the compromise schedule, where students get one lunch on Wednesdays, but are split in half for the rest of the week.

The Impact at Lincoln High School

The impact of this change at Lincoln has been noticeable. One student commented, “The halls feel dead.” In fact, in some ways, lunch at Lincoln does feel like a skeleton of its former self. Before this, hallways, common spaces, and the courtyard have always been fit to burst, with students crammed into chairs, walking around chatting, and calling out to each other. Although it was common to offhandedly complain about the busyness, the loss of half of the student body feels unsettling. Those same areas feel weirdly empty, and in some ways it feels like we’ve lost some of Lincoln’s culture.

Social and learning disruption has also occurred. My brother, a sophomore, told me that he had just found a good group of friends to eat lunch with when the two-lunch schedule set in; now he is alone in lunch B, with the rest of his group in lunch A. I know many people who now just skip their fourth period, or leave for extended amounts of time, to go see their friends who are having lunch. Administration is working to crack down on this, but it’s nearly impossible to differentiate a student eating lunch from a student who should be in class.

Clubs at Lincoln are also struggling to handle this change. For example, I am the president of the Medlife chapter at our school, a club that has met every other Tuesday at lunch. With the new lunch schedule, clubs have been discouraged from rescheduling their meetings to the Wednesday one-lunch slot, as this would limit the number of clubs students could actively be a part of. Our new options are to meet before school, which isn’t feasible for many students because of transportation; meet after school, which conflicts with athletic practices and games; or find a second advisor and run one meeting during lunch A and one meeting during lunch B. For Medlife, we are aiming to run dual meetings with a second advisor. Our club is already small, with just 10–15 people attending meetings. Splitting this in half will be challenging, but it’s the best option we have to preserve our club. 

Unanswered Questions

The fact that we’ve been given the flexibility to have one lunch on Wednesdays raises more questions. The district has stated that the main reason for the two-lunch schedule is that long lunch lines were leading to students not having enough time to eat. If this is truly their primary reason, how does this work on the days when we only have one lunch? Are students just meant to not get to eat on Wednesdays? Lunch lines have not been an issue at Lincoln, so it’s possible that this is why we got this exception. But if this is the case, why can’t we just have one lunch for the entire week?

Communication from the school board and superintendent has been minimal, and seems to be filled with a lot of words but not a lot of true explanations.

The two-lunch schedule is now a reality, but it seems to be introducing new problems and providing weak solutions to the problems that already existed. The cost to Lincoln’s culture, both in terms of clubs as well as socially, is palpable. As students adapt, we hope for the district to either clarify its reasoning for the new schedule or provide more support to preserve the vitality of our lunches.