The PTOs at Oak Park’s two middle schools long ago discovered that selling food to hungry teens is their top fundraiser. Now protecting that franchise by seeking an extension of a state waiver is the goal. On the way to that waiver, the PTOs and the District 97 Wellness Committee needed to agree that the food being served was within the district’s healthy eating guidelines.
At a meeting Feb. 14, the District 97 board set in motion plans for an application to extend the state waiver that would allow PTOs at its two middle schools to continue food-related fundraisers.
The district’s PTO Council and Wellness Committee both support seeking the waiver. The D97 board did not take a formal vote on Feb. 14.
That action will likely come sometime by May after the district holds a public forum concerning the waiver, which is required by law. D97 sought and received a five-year extension on the waiver in 2007; that extension is up this summer.
New state guidelines concerning healthy foods in schools will also be coming down sometime this spring, D97 officials noted. They said they’ll follow those guidelines whenever they come, but, in the meantime, are not prohibited in any way from pursuing the waiver.
The waiver also covers programs like CAST and BRAVO, the district’s performing arts programs which also host food-related fundraisers throughout the year.
Last year, the BRAVO and PTO fundraisers at Brooks Middle School, 325 S. Kenilworth, brought in roughly $50,000 in total.
Representatives and supporters from those programs spoke during public comment at last Tuesday’s meeting.
Carollina Song, co-president of the Brooks PTO spoke in favor of pursuing the waiver and in support of CAST and Bravo.
“The lunch sales currently are, and will likely remain, the single largest fundraiser for the Brooks and Julian PTO,” she said, noting that Brooks nets more than $10,000 annually from their lunch sales.
Those groups, she added, are also working with the Wellness Committee to make sure their foods are in line with the committee’s guidelines. Supt. Albert Roberts described those meetings as positive. But prior to those talks, which began late last fall, there had been confusion about what those guidelines are and if school groups were following them correctly.
Board President Peter Barber noted the two groups were closer than they realized concerning those guidelines.
The PTOs, for instance, do offer pasta and fruits as part of their lunch menus. Roberts stressed that all have agreed to make sure what kids are eating meet the district’s standards.
“This is a really good example of how when everybody thinks alike nobody thinks very much,” he said. “We really did get the diversity of thought in the room and it paid off, so I’d like to support that.”
The district must submit the waiver by June 30, and the board is required to formally approve that submission at a regular meeting before that time. But that won’t happen until later this spring. Therese O’Neill, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations said a public hearing must be held first — a written record of that hearing must be included in the application packet to the state.
That hearing should likely take place in March with a board vote in April.
