The Manassas Park School board approved a 10-cent increase in the price of a school lunch for next year and honored three students who participated in the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) Regional Art Contest.
At a Monday meeting, the board adopted the lunch price increase for the 2012-2013 school year, bringing the cost of a full-price school lunch to $2.40. The increase was mandated by federal guidelines under the Healthy-Free Kids Act of 2010, said Manassas Park Superintendent of Schools Bruce McDade. If the district did not raise its paid lunch price, the difference would have to made up elsewhere in the district’s budget.
The board also recognized three students who entered art work into the VSBA contest. Ezekiel Tumang, a second grader, Phung Pham, an eighth grader and Samantha Gamble, a high school junior, all entered artwork into the contest.
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School board Chairman Michael Wine said the board was extremely proud of the entries into the contest.
“This is an exciting thing for us, to have these really good entries into the contest,” Wine said. “We really want to thank the students for their work.”
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Kay Brimijoin, an education consultant, updated the board on a second round of teacher workshops based on a new instructional method called differentiated learning – which acknowledges that each child learns at a different pace. Brimijoin recently completed workshops with about two dozen teachers at all four of the district schools and had started a new set of in-school sessions this year, she said.
Differentiation in education includes how a student shows they have mastery of a concept. Rather than the normal multiple question exam, mastery can be demonstrated through a research paper, role play, podcast, diagram or poster. The key to differentiation is finding how students learn and display the achievements through their own specific needs, she said.
Brimijoin said she was excited by the new round of workshops.
“Working with the Manassas Park teachers and administrators has been one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had in my professional life,” Brimijoin said. “The students and staff here are extraordinary.”