A food connection: waiting tables and school lunches abroad - Leadership Lite

School Administrator, May, 2003

Waiter for a Day

The night that Gary Harms spent balancing trays of steaming food and mixed drinks and washing dishes at Minerva's, one of Aberdeen, S.D.'s finer eating establishments, resulted in a bigger payoff than he expected.

Harms is an assistant superintendent in the Aberdeen schools. He worked the Friday night shift in return for a pair of $50 gift certificates, which he intends to award to deserving staff members at the end of the school year.

A hunter from Texas who was dining at Minerva's that evening was so taken by Harms' gesture that he reached into his wallet and pulled out a $100 bill. Now four staff who are participating in the district's morale-boosting program will receive certificates to the restaurant.

Menus From Afar

The Knight Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University recently solicited lunch menus from schools around the world for a comparative study. Here's what was being served.

Russia (School 1529, Moscow): beef, potato and wheat soup; boiled rice; mandarin orange compote; wheat bread; fresh tomato.

France (Ecole Elementaire, Paris): ham with lentils, salad with tomatoes, corn, soy and Gruyere; yogurt with sugar; baguette slices; banana; water.

Mexico (Lazaro Cardenas Grammar School, Mexico City): meat; rice, corn and squash; horchata; apple.

South Korea (elementary school, Taegu): rice; chicken soup; squid with hot sauce; fried sweet potatoes; radish kimchi.

United States (South Avenue School, Beacon, N.Y.): pot roast; mashed potatoes; broccoli; apple; milk.

Overheard at Lunch

During the Century Club luncheon at the AASA national conference, Dave Scala, assistant superintendent in Sioux Falls, S.D., commented: "It's easier to get a room of school kids under control than to quiet a meeting of superintendents."

A Lasting Incentive

Shannon Stannard is a woman of her word, even if it means abandoning her career a little prematurely.

Worried that voters in the Fostoria school system near Dayton had rejected a tax levy three times because they didn't like her, Stannard offered an incentive prior to Vote No. 4: Pass the levy and I'll quit at the end of the year.

She kept her word, retiring in December after nearly four decades as an educator and nine years as Fostoria's superintendent.

"It's what I call bittersweet," Stannard told the Associated Press.

A Story of Conquest

MaryAnn Straley reached into her bag of tricks from her days as a media specialist when she interviewed for the superintendency in Princeton, Minn., last summer.

While the school board sat quietly, Straley pulled out a copy of Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon McKenzie and proceeded to read aloud for about six minutes to the board members who had been asking what she might do during her first year if hired. "Maybe the memories of charming little children and even big children by reading to them told me it would work with board members as well," Straley said of her novel tactic.

The board responded by making her an offer. She said later: "I suspect they felt as if they were seeing the real person before them."

Sage Advice

From the mouths of young school-age children, who were asked some of life's most important questions:

* How do you decide whom to marry?

Alan, age 10: "You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming."

Kirsten, age 10: "No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with."

* What is the right age to get married?

Freddie, age 6: "No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married."

* How can a stranger tell if two people are married?

Derrick, age 6: "You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids."

* What do most people do on a date?

Lynnette, age 8: "Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough."

Martin, age 10: "On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date."

* What would you do on a first date that was turning sour?

Craig, age 9: "I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns."

* Is it better to be single or married?

Anita, age 9: "It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them."

Short humorous or offbeat anecdotes, quips, quotations and malapropisms for this column relating to school district administration should be addressed to: Editor, The School Administrator, 801 N. Quincy St., Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22203-1730. Fax: 703-841-1543. E-mail: magazine@aasa.org. Upon request, names may be with held in print.