Closure of school leaves families little time to plan

Amy I agree that politician waste our money to make themselves look good. Yet, somehow they keep getting voted back in office. As far as free lunch and work…Yes, I believe children should have to work for food. They do it at home in the form of chores, good grades and odd jobs. So why shouldn’t they have to work when someone else’s footing the bill. It doesn’t have to be laborious work, it can be simple things, like picking up, wiping tables off or sweeping floors…the whole idea is to take advantage of the teaching moment. Teach the kids that work can lead to earned rewards. Instead we teach them that it is ok to free load, especially if we have an excuse.

I believe hard work and good completion is the best answer. Everyone has a sob story, I feel bad for the families that suffer from deadbeat dads. My father was home, worked and we were still poor. In fact, beans and tortillas was a major course meal for us. I have very little sympathy for people that make poor choices. While I was in the Marine Corps I saw abject poverty in many of the foreign countries I visited. Their children worked for food and completed, now it’s coming back to hurt us in the form of weak comp

You shouldn't expect children to WORK for their lunch in school. Quite often that lunch is the most nutritional meal they get throughout the day. Clearly you aren't reading and keeping up with the news today because too many people are having to cut back on the food they feed their families to put gasoline in their tanks. Students whose parents don't earn enough get the free lunches. I was one of those children who did receive free lunch and I was never fat and neither was my sister. Perhaps it is time for politicians to cut back on unnecessary expenditures and put that money back into the schools where it should be to help us create a better more productive generation. By the way, if parents would encourage their children to get out of the house and actually do something other than play video games and sit on a computer, don't you think that would be more effective than refusing to feed children in curbing childhood obesity?

After 14 years of marriage, my husband decided he didn't want the burden on his 2 kids and he simply left. He works off the books in order to avoid paying any type of support and is in arrears in the tens of thousands. I work over 40 hours a week and my children are entitled to free lunches, and neither one is even close to fat. I'm sure there are those who sponge off the state, but I think most would rather be able to support themselves. I hardly think doing away with free lunches will make a dent in the budget. Doing away with free lunches would only punish the children who receive them in the long run, not the deadbeats you seem to want to go after. WWJD?

Amy I will contend (at least around here) that free lunch in the 1960s existed on very limited bases. Now there are underling reasons why kids today are fat and I believe that free lunch is part of it. When you receive free anything, you loose the natural drive to satisfy a need. That’s why nature created a natural response to hunger, your stomach pangs. As far as unhealthy foods…do you expect the good stuff to be passed out FREE! Ask the Indians how that worked out. I justify stopping free lunch because it is part of the problem … it isn’t the solution. Try making free lunch into an earned lunch. You work you get paid, and in this case you get paid in food; otherwise, let the parent take care of their own child. Amy you have to look VERY hard to find truly starving children in America. You may find a couple of hungry kids whose parents are worthless but not on the scale in other countries. Schools run on a limited budget and free anything drains that budget…you can’t have it both ways…free and loose or pay and keep.

can't the public school system pick up this school's curriculum? Hire the staff from the school that have received their pink slips and create this "specialty" within the public school system. That way the school would get the federal dollars that are contributed to such programs. If you can spend money to build all of these hotels,motels and whatnot, surely you can find some money to offer these services to those who are in need w/o having those families'needing to pull up stakes and move.

Pardon me, but are you saying that only poor people are fat? Perhaps the schools should quit bringing in unhealthy nutritious food, rather than taking lunch out of the mouths of those who cannot afford them. How can you justify getting rid of the "free lunch" program? Please tell me how that will reduce childhood obesity as well, last time I checked, starving kids was child abuse.

You are correct there are too many feel good programs in school. It is funny reading the news report about child obesity. The noted increase of fat kids, today as compared to kids in the 1960s, maybe free school lunch should be the first “feel good” program to go, to help decrease child obesity. As far as deaf children…I understood that that type of disability crosses socioeconomic lines too, as well it doesn’t affect the person’s brain. With all of the court rulings these kids can be moved into a traditional school setting. They have translators in the schools. It is a good way to save money on already strained resources.

NPR news this morning that Virginia is the 5th richest state in the Union, but 33rd in terms of funding for schools and programs like this very school. You see Becky, unless your a rich politician or get kick backs from developers, or own half of Ocean View, or have been in office for 15 years plus, or sit on the Norfolk city council and plan grandiose schemes, your special needs child "gets left behind"! They really don't care! Personally, if I had a child, I would leave this urban cesspool and move! But I digress, this area has too many "feel good" programs. On paper and in "print", it would seem they are doing the right thing, but the children "get left behind" again...all in the name of budget cuts. But hey...you can take your special needs child down to the new ocean front development in Virginia Beach at 31st St. in a few years.

Why is it that the Virginia Beach School System can provide numerous “Academies” with in its schools for the intellectually privileged, but cannot provide an “Academy” for children who need it the most? These students need help in learning to adapt to our world on a most personal level… basic seeing and hearing needs! I know that classes are available through out the city, but obviously not on the level that these students need. The city needs to update the way it handles these special students before they improve on students who already can function at a normal level!