Lt. Governor, Seaford School District Announce New District-Wide Elementary School Breakfast Program

 DOVER, DE – Yesterday, Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn was joined by Seaford School District officials to announce that the Seaford School District is the first Delaware school district to join his campaign to allow students to eat breakfast in the classroom in all of its elementary schools.

National research has demonstrated that eating breakfast has a significant impact on students’ academic performance and overall well-being, and that allowing students to eat breakfast in the classroom dramatically increases the number of students who eat a nutritious breakfast.  Delaware ranks 22^nd in the country with respect to the percentage of income-eligible students who eat breakfast at school.  Prior to Seaford accepting the Lieutenant Governor’s challenge, the Colonial School District was the only other school district in Delaware that offered breakfast to all of its elementary school students.

“Offering breakfast in the classroom is something that we know will help our kids, and something that we can do today,” Lieutenant Governor Denn said.   “I applaud Seaford for its effort, and I hope other districts will follow suit.  When I leave Seaford today, I’ll be driving to yet another elementary school in a nearby district to talk to its principal about following Seaford’s example.”

Lieutenant Governor Denn was joined at today’s press conference at West Seaford Elementary School by Seaford’s Interim Superintendent Kevin Carson, Nutrition Services Supervisor Patricia Cunningham, and the principals of all four Seaford elementary schools.

“At West Seaford Elementary, now that every student can eat breakfast for free, an average of 87 more students a day are eating breakfast,” said West Seaford Principal Julie Giangiulio, whose student breakfast participation has jumped from 55% to 80% in the three months since in-classroom breakfast began.  “That is 87 students that were likely going hungry before. When students are hungry they can struggle concentrating, get frequent headaches, and they can even struggle with behavior problems. Bringing free breakfast to West Seaford means our students have one less obstacle in their path toward a bright and healthy future.”

Since beginning the classroom breakfast program in January, Blades Elementary has increased its breakfast participation by 12%.  Central Elementary’s first day of offering breakfast in the classroom is today, March 19^th and Frederick Douglass will follow on March 31^st.

On average, Central serves 180 students a day for breakfast.  Today, the first day of their classroom breakfast program, they served 301 students, which is a jump from 38% to 64% of their students.

“There has always been tremendous disparity between the Seaford School District lunch participation and the breakfast participation,” said Nutrition Services Supervisor Patricia Cunningham.   “Obstacles, like busing and class scheduling, which were beyond the Nutrition Services Department control, prompted the department to look at alternate methods to reach the students for breakfast service.  It was also our mission to reach our students, given the fact that 74% of our students qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.”

Lt. Governor Denn’s Announcement of New District-Wide Elementary School Breakfast Program

WHO: Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn
Julie Giangiulio – Principal, West Seaford Elementary School
Denise Jacono – Principal, Frederick Douglass Elementary School
Jeff Forjan – Principal, Seaford Central Elementary School
Heather Bethurum – Principal,Blades Elementary School
Patricia Cunningham – Nutrition Services Supervisor , Seaford School District
Dr. Kevin Carson – Interim Superintendent, Seaford School District
Students

WHAT: Announcement of New District-Wide Elementary School Breakfast Program

WHEN: Wednesday, March 19, 2014
11:15 a.m.

WHERE: West Seaford Elementary School
511 Sussex Avenue
Seaford, Delaware 19973

DETAILS: Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn will announce Seaford School District as the first district he has recruited to allow students to eat breakfast in the classroom in all of its elementary schools.

The Seaford School District joins Colonial School District in having all elementary schools allow students to eat breakfast in the classroom. Eating breakfast in the classroom has been a proven way to increase participation which increases grades, test scores, and positive behavior throughout the day. Across the country, eating breakfast in the classroom has also reduced tardiness, absenteeism, childhood obesity, and disciplinary issues.

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Proposals from Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor and Education Committee Chairs set to become law

DOVER – A bill that implements a key component of a plan to combat cyber-bullying passed the House of Representatives on Thursday and is headed to the Governor’s desk.

Senate Bill 193, sponsored by Sen. David Sokola and Rep. Terry Schooley, allows the Attorney General’s office to defend school districts and charter schools if they face a legal challenge after implementing a statewide cyberbullying policy. Attorney General Beau Biden and Lt. Gov. Matt Denn began the process of drafting the statewide cyberbulling policy in the spring when they held statewide public hearings to gather factual evidence from school administrators and parents about the type of off-campus activity causing disruption in our schools. Once the policy is developed, the state’s Department of Education will issue regulations requiring adoption of the statewide cyberbullying policy by public school districts and charter schools.

Nationally, 8.2 million students are bullied each year and 1 million are cyber-bullied. About 160,000 students stay home from school on any given day because they’re afraid of being bullied. In Delaware, nearly 20 percent of students surveyed last year reported that another student issued a verbal threat against them, while 30 percent reported that they said something to another student to hurt them.

“The General Assembly recognized that although social networking technology has erased the boundary between the schoolyard and home, schools have had difficulty taking action against cyberbullies,” Attorney General Biden said. “This legislation changes that by making sure my office can stand behind schools trying to make their campuses the safe, supportive learning environments our kids deserve. I want to thank Lt. Gov. Denn, Sen. Sokola, and Rep. Schooley for their hard work and advocacy to make this change happen.”

“We are already hard at work developing this policy,” said Lt. Governor Denn. “We’ve held the meetings, gotten great feedback, and look forward to presenting a policy that will protect our children and let them focus on learning and being kids instead of worrying about being bullied.”

“I’m pleased to see that my colleagues in the House understand the dimensions of this problem and have acted to pass this bill,” said Sen. David Sokola (D-Newark), the bill’s lead sponsor. “It’s an issue that can have a harmful effect on safety and school climate, both of which are vital to a student’s ability to succeed in school. Fortunately, we have good guidance from the courts about how to address this in a Constitutionally-acceptable way and I’m confident that the attorney general and our education community will do just that.”

Rep. Schooley (D-Newark), who sponsored the bill in the House, said “In this age of technology, young people use many different forms of social media, computers and cell phones to communicate and publicly post information. Unfortunately, these means of communication can be used to bully other young people in a more public way than previous generations could ever imagine. By passing this bill, we are trying to stay ahead of the curve and protect our children and grandchildren from cyber-bullying and let people know that bullying in any form is wrong and should not be tolerated.”

SB 193 is part of a two-bill package from Biden, Schooley and Sokola aimed at fighting bullying. HB 268, which passed both chambers of the legislature earlier this year, protects students against bullying by adding consistency in how bullying incidents are reported by schools.

The bill requires the Department of Education to annually audit schools to ensure that they are properly investigating and reporting bullying allegations. The legislation was developed from multiple community forums Attorney General Biden has held talking to students and parents about bullying, and from conversations he and Lt. Gov. Denn have had with district superintendents.

The legislation addresses a lack of consistency in how bullying incidents are reported by school districts. For example, Laurel Middle School, which has a four-star commendable rating, had the highest number of incidents (38 in a 344-student school) during the 2010-11 school year, but William Penn High with 1,981 students had zero reported incidents. And only one incident was reported in the entire Smyrna School District. School districts would be required to report unsubstantiated claims of bullying to the state Department of Education, in addition to the current requirement for reporting substantiated claims. The current law says substantiated claims must be reported within five business days. Often it takes longer than that for a school administrator to verify a student’s claim, so the incident never gets reported.

Additionally, the Attorney General’s Office’s bullying hotline (1-800-220-5414) must be posted on each school district’s website and in a conspicuous place in each school.