Baltimore City school district leaders want to hear student voices before revising key policies on grading and student well-being.
The board of school commissioners held a forum to capture that feedback Wednesday night. Most of the proposed changes clarify definitions for terms like “student wholeness” and alter grading language for elementary students.
But nutrition and physical activity options dominated group conversation. Specifically, students pushed back against a proposed ban on ordering food through services like DoorDash and Uber Eats during the school day.
Anne Rosenthal, the district’s food and nutrition specialist, said school administrators face heavy burdens in regulating meal-delivery services.
“We know that many principals have already banned these services, but they're not banned at every school,” Rosenthal said. “We've heard safety concerns regarding delivery drivers and traffic. We've heard that meal delivery services can interrupt student class time, and that the nutritional content of the delivered meals is not helpful for students' learning.”
But students say the meals fill nutritional gaps in school cafeteria options, like a lack of vegan and vegetarian food. And, when school activities run into evening hours, students need additional fuel.
Brooke Bourne, a student at Western High School and president of the Associated Student Congress of Baltimore City, said it’s unfair for teachers and staff to still have the option when students don’t.
“We don't want them to not have food, but we also don't want the privileges of food being sent to the schools just for them,” Bourne said. “Especially when some of the food options within the cafeteria aren't necessarily up to par with what they're supposed to be.”
She says close to one hundred students each day used to order food through meal-delivery services at school, before school administrators stopped the practice.
Students urged commissioners and district leaders to let schools decide the policies on an individual basis, instead of issuing a district-wide policy.
“If your school can handle that type of weight, taking on having students use Uber Eats or DoorDash, I feel as though they should have that power,” said Isaiah Gregory, a sophomore at Baltimore Design School.
Bourne and Gregory suggested schools implement a cubby system, so students can pick up their orders at a convenient time from the main office.
Students advocated for better communication from individual school leaders and teachers across the board — in setting grade expectations, in implementing policies like meal-delivery bans, and more.
“There are like five students here,” Bourne said. “We can't represent everyone as a whole district because everyone's experience is different. And putting in these experiences will also show what needs to be in place for that specific school. Because what might work for one school might not work for another school.”
The school commissioners and district leaders are still in the process of reviewing both policies before implementing any official changes this spring.
