Bones in their Burgers (and other 1st Day news)
A fourth of St. Louis Public School students missed the first day of school (7,000 out of a projected enrollment of 28,000). Governor Matt Blunt and the man he put he put in charge of turning the district around, CEO Rick Sullivan, made that announcement at a press conference today.
Of the students that did show up a school today, four at Nance Elementary reported finding bone-like chips in the cheeseburgers they were eating at lunch today. As a precaution, the St. Louis Public School District removed the frozen food item from all of its elementary school cafeterias. The chips were sent to a lab for identification and analysis. The St. Louis Health Department was also contacted to further assist in the investigation.
According to district officials, the pre-packaged cheeseburgers were distributed from Preferred Meals Systems, Inc. The Chicago-based food service company agreed to investigate the product’s manufacturing process.
The following letter was sent home with students on Wednesday. No signs of illness were reported.
Dear Parents:
What appear to be white-enameled objects were found in some lunch meals at Nance Elementary School. The objects resemble bone chips and are being sent to a laboratory for identification and analysis. In the meantime, all meals with the same identification number and the same processing function will be pulled from the schools. An investigation of the entire manufacturing process will begin immediately. The St. Louis Health Department will be contacted to further assist in the investigation.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at (314) 867-0634.
Sincerely,
Monica T. Miller
Principal
Earl Nance Sr. Elementary
Share your own First Day stories in the comments section.
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16 Comments
Sanguine Penguin
Wednesday, 20th August 2008 at 5:04 pm
I remember the first day of schools in the SLPS, when I was in elementary school. We’re talking in the mid-1980s. They always had pizza for lunch on the first day of school. And wherever they got the pizza, it was really good. It was served as a slice inside a small white box. IIRC, they always had it on the last day of school, as well.
kjoe
Wednesday, 20th August 2008 at 8:12 pm
Someone who used to work for the in house lunch people who were booted out by Roberti posted a wonderful 1st hand account of how things were done before Slay’s people forced the slps to do it the republican way—outsource the task to those who could make the cold hard decisions of how to scrimp on the budgets.
I wish we could hear from her again.
If you round up the previous figure of 27,000 to 28,000, and only 7000 were absent, you can claim an improvement from Bourisaw’s first day of 72 to 75 percent first day attendance—so long as no one looks at the books too closely.
And god forbid any reporter ever follow up on the final figures for the entire 175 days.
jim
Wednesday, 20th August 2008 at 9:16 pm
Just FYI. First day I had 14 kids. Second day 19. After today 21. That is not bad for the SLPS. I expect we will get a few more. Also, I didn’t hear the news (only heard Channel 2) mention that the SAB just voted in a new lunch/breakfast provider. Not a good start for them.
free lunch
Wednesday, 20th August 2008 at 10:24 pm
7000…God that’s so depressing. I feel so bad for the kids whose parents don’t give a fuck enough to make sure they don’t miss the first day of school.
I went to a SLPS school in the early 80’s too, and let me tell you… the food was NOT good.
Douglsa Duckworth
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 7:08 am
I’m sure it’s not that 7000 parents don’t give a fuck. Some might work two jobs. Did you think of that?
Douglsa Duckworths last blog post..Election Results
flyover
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 8:53 am
There was a lunch problem out here in Ladue. The cafeteria ran short of foie gras and several Freshmen had to settle for prime rib. Does anyone else remember getting gov’t surplus cheese for lunch every single day back in the sixties?
free lunch
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 9:12 am
Yeah I thought of that, but honestly I can tell you from experience that that is NOT what happened.
Katherine.Wessling
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 10:17 am
This is a problem, but is a lesser issue to me compared to the fact that in an attempt to cut costs, the SAB told the principal at my child’s school that she would get 3 4th grade teachers instead of the four requested, and ONE fifth grade teacher, and if enough kids showed up they would see about getting her more. So there are three fourth grade classes with about 40 kids each in them, and 96 fifth graders for one teacher! I had college classes with fewer kids than that! Thank goodness for the professionalism of our teachers, as they handle this fiasco with grace and caring for the kids. My daughter’s teacher actually fell down because her room is so jam packed full of kids she tripped over furniture.
The media touched slightly on bussing. It is insane that busses were delivering children home after 6:30pm. These are preschool-2nd grade kids on these busses. School got out at 4:08. Of course, that was on the way home. Three days into the school year I am still talking to parents who say the busses have yet to pick their kids up (and yes, these parents have brought their kids to school).
A friend of mine found busses waiting at a school that had closed over the summer and had to tell them where the school was they were supposed to be picking the children up from and send them over there. She also found a delivery truck on the same empty school lot wondering why there was no one there to receive the lunches it was carrying.
This is considered progress? Not in my book. No, we just hear the Governor telling us that things are better and we are crazy if we don’t support the policies and politicians that led to this situation.
LisaS
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 11:41 am
I blogged the first day of school rather extensively … two posts that day …
kjoe
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 1:27 pm
I apologize if I am taking too much space in this post——but——the management of education news continues to dismay me. Compare the pd’s abbreviated reports on page 6 of the metro, (no reporter name) with what went out over the ap as reported by the slps board newsletter.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
By BETSY TAYLOR
The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — Gov. Matt Blunt said Wednesday he doesn’t think anyone is satisfied with the existing state of St. Louis schools, but pointed to modest improvements in standardized test scores as one step in the right direction.
Blunt and his representative to the St. Louis Transitional School Board, Rick Sullivan, held a news conference to provide an update on efforts to turn around the long-troubled district. The district is the largest in Missouri and under state supervision due to academic and financial problems.
“I don’t think anybody is satisfied with the current state of the St. Louis schools,” Blunt said.
Both men said the district has some excellent schools and successful programs and will work harder to replicate those elsewhere in the district.
While an interim superintendent is in place, a search continues for a permanent one. Some other top administrative positions are also unfilled.
Sullivan said the hope is to announce the new superintendent at the end of September. He said 34 qualified candidates applied. Many know of the “turmoil and turnover” that urban districts may experience, but candidates expressed satisfaction in the transitional board being in place, he said.
“They see the start of stability here,” he said.
Blunt and Sullivan pointed to slight standardized test gains in English and math as a bright spot for the city schools.
“They had nothing to do with that,” William Purdy, a member of the now-disbanded elected school board said in a telephone interview. Another elected school board member, Peter Downs, agreed, saying students who earned those Missouri Assessment Program scores had done so under policies and curriculum approved by the previous board and superintendent.
The three-member, transitional school board including Sullivan was appointed last year. The district will be under state supervision into 2011.
The elected school board no longer has say over the district, long plagued with problems including budgetary issues and low graduation rates and college placement.
Improvement needed
Both the governor and Sullivan outlined areas that need improvement. For one, about 21,000 students showed up for class Monday, though about 28,000 were expected. Blunt also said there will be more focus on providing nutritious lunches.
Following the news conference, the district issued a statement saying four children encountered “bone-like chips” in their cheeseburgers Wednesday, and the cheeseburgers were removed from school cafeterias as a precaution.
St. Louis district spokesman Patrick Wallace said Blunt and Sullivan would not have been aware of the cheeseburger concern at the news conference. Wallace noted he first learned of it while they were already speaking.
The district also had a problem where hundreds of families weren’t notified about updated bus stops for the first day of school.
“The bus schedules this year, I bet they didn’t talk about that, did they?” Purdy said.
Wallace said about 400 families didn’t receive notices from the district about this year’s bus stops, a development that stranded some students Monday morning. He said the district is investigating to see how the glitch, believed to be either a data entry or computer problem, happened and to correct it.
However, the officials reported success with a new program encouraging fathers to bring their children to school, saying many dads did. Sullivan said the hope is to make that a more common event, where dads may be asked to accompany their children on the first day of every month.
This SLPS Board News Update is from the Public and Governmental Affairs Committee of the Elected Board of Education and was created to help keep you informed about what is happening in the St. Louis Public Schools.
Antonio D. French
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 2:42 pm
KJoe, for all of our sakes, please discover TinyUrl.com (http://tinyurl.com/).
kjoe
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 4:31 pm
I am working on it at a site far away.
TippingPitchers.com > TippingPitchers.com Forums > The Lounge
KJoe, for all of our sakes, please discover TinyUrl.com (http://tinyurl.com/).
jim
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 6:00 pm
The Sullivan/Blunt statements make me want to puke. Lying mother-f***ers! It is clear they will say anything to make the (uninformed) public believe they are making things better. Is there anybody out there anymore with balls enough to stand up, get pissed off, and do what has to be done to GET RID OF THESE IDIOTS?
kjoe
Thursday, 21st August 2008 at 7:10 pm
Maybe jay Nixon—I asked Jo Mannies to ask him to clarify what he was talking about when he said there are problems with the law allowing the takeover, and he believes all public schools should be governed by elected boards—-I received no response. It has been more than a month—-I am sure she will get back to me.
kjoe
Friday, 22nd August 2008 at 1:47 pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ksbluesfan
Perfect. Now see if you can do that on his blog.
Maybe that is why I need the tiny url.com. There is no globe insert link that I can find like there is here. If I type anything in his third box, it will not submit. (I removed my email which they insert automatically from the middle box to show what I am talking about, here.)
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URI
Originally Posted by Jester
This is alot of work just to post a picture of a kitten on some dude’s blog.
I like Antonio. I am trying hard to respect his wishes regarding posting on his blog.
Can you include a link in the comment?
http://tippingpitchers.com/showthread.php?p=1946514#post1946514
kjoe
Friday, 22nd August 2008 at 1:58 pm
That story by betsy taylor had more info than the articles in the pd.
http://tippingpitchers.com/showthread.php?p=1946532#post1946532
The ap article which triggered his —uhh—advice, was in an e-mail to me, and I cannot track it down elsewhere—you guys are used to my convoluted idiocy, so I will paste the article here, and then post just a link back to the article on his site—-I think he wants me to do more linking, and much less pasting. I still don’t know what his url box is for, but just using a link without the globe thing will probably be an improvement.
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