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Red means stop in Melrose's cafeteria, where a full-sized computerized stoplight controls the noise.
By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 22, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG -- Brenton Nash tried to pretend it was just another day as he filed into the cafeteria with his fifth-grade class on Thursday.
He nonchalantly selected a chef's salad and a carton of milk from the lunch line. He ambled toward his usual table, which was already occupied by several of his friends.
But as he set his tray on the dark green table cloth, the 10-year-old couldn't resist a sidelong glance at the man hunched over a tripod in the corner of the room.
The presence of the visitor with the camera made this no ordinary day at Melrose Elementary Center for Communication and Mass Media, 1752 13th Ave. S.
For more than an hour, the cameraman and his assistant captured life in the lunch room for a Good Morning America segment on "civilized" school cafeterias. The program, which aired this morning, portrayed Melrose as one of a select few schools across the country where children dine in serene, sociable environments.
"It's not very common to be able to talk while you're eating lunch," Brenton said Thursday, adding that he remembers when it was impossible to carry on a conversation in the cafeteria because it was so noisy.
Good Morning America was attracted to Melrose because of principal Sue Graham's efforts to tame the cafeteria several years ago. Relying on research that indicates calm surroundings create calm students, she hired St. Petersburg artist Lauren Smith to paint floor-to-ceiling murals of restaurant scenes in neutral colors. She bought scaled-down tables that are just the right size for young children, draped them with linen table cloths and topped them with green plants.
Then she introduced the most important element: a full-size replica of a traffic light that manages noise levels in the cafeteria.
The "talk light" cost about $1,000 and uses computer circuits to monitor the room's noise level. During normal talk levels, the green light is on. During moderate talk levels, the yellow light is on. As the volume increases, the yellow light flashes, giving children one minute to quiet down. If they do not, the red light comes on, indicating unacceptable talk levels. If the noise level drops, the light will change to yellow or green, depending on the volume.
Shortly after the cafeteria's transformation was complete, Graham came across an article in Child magazine about Viola L. Sickles School in Fair Haven, N.J. Administrators there had turned the cafeteria into a "learning lab for community and cooperation" using many of the same techniques Graham had introduced at Melrose.
She wrote to Karen Evans Stout, associate professor of education policy at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., whom the article's author identified as a leader in the movement for child-friendly school cafeterias, and told her about Melrose's cafeteria. Aware that Good Morning America was working on a show about unique school lunch rooms, Evans Stout asked the show's producers if they would be interested in including Melrose.
The producers contacted Graham before Christmas, but she did not know until last week that the camera crew was definitely coming. To prove that the cafeteria is indeed child-friendly, she allowed the crew to interview her with the lunch room chatter as a backdrop.
"We don't want the children to come in and be silent for 30 minutes," Graham said. "My goal was always that they would talk during lunch but that they would monitor their volume, and they're doing it. It's not even controlled chaos anymore."
School technology specialist James Pribble, who monitors about 15 classes a day during his cafeteria duty, said the combination of the calming colors and the talk light has made a tremendous difference in the children's behavior.
"It still gets loud with nine classes in the cafeteria at the same time, but it's a lot better," he said.
Behavior specialist Kurt Wyne agrees. He used to spend most of his time between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. sitting with children who had been sent to the time-out room for misbehaving in the cafeteria. Referals for offenses such as throwing food have declined about 75 percent, he said.
"Since we've implemented the new environment, there's been a big difference. Across the board things have improved tremendously. It makes my job a lot easier," he said.
Assistant principal Cara Walsh, who has lunch duty for 45 minutes each day, said the talk light has transformed lunch time.
"They watch it," she said. "If it starts flashing yellow, they'll raise their hands and give the quiet signal. They've never self-monitored like that before.
Fifth-grade teacher Jessica Williams thinks the civilized environment prepares students better for the rest of the day.
"It used to take 10 to 15 minutes for them to get calmed down after lunch," she said. "Now they're ready to work in two or three minutes."
The complaints the children bring to the classroom after lunch also have dissipated, she said. She is hearing far fewer tales about children getting out of their seats, throwing food or being disrespectful in the cafeteria.
Cafeteria manager Lisa Buis is quick to admit that the neutral colors and the talk light haven't worked miracles. Kids are still kids, she said, and they need an outlet for their energy. Because hectic schedules have squeezed recess out of their day, the 30 minutes they spend in the cafeteria is often their only social time.
"We let them get a little loud," she said. "We feel they need to be able to express themselves. But they know the limit. They watch that light. When it goes red, you can hear a pin drop."
Best friends Kayla Lumpkin, Shabrae Dacosta and Yatara Williams, all 11-year-old fifth-graders, have learned to keep an eye on the light while they engage in their favorite topic of lunch room conversation: boys.
"It's on yellow or green most of the time," Kayla said. "When it goes to red, we have to quiet down. We don't need an adult to tell us."
Graham admits that while the children were adapting to their more civilized environment, the light was "going off 10, 15, 20 times a day," but things are better now. According to a noise level chart posted on the cafeteria wall, the red light came on only 13 times in the 10 school days from Jan. 6 to Jan. 17.
One of the clearest indicators that the cafeteria has become a civilized place, Graham said, comes from parents.
"Parents are willing to volunteer now," she said. "They were hesitant before because it was so noisy."
The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Dietetic Association and other medical groups have joined with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to endorse 10 keys to achieving healthy eating in schools. A call for longer lunch periods and more pleasant surroundings are included in the recommendations.
Students, parents, food service staff, educators and community leaders will be involved in assessing the school's eating environment, developing a shared vision and an action plan to achieve it.
Adequate funds will be provided by local, state and federal sources to ensure that the total school environment supports the development of healthy eating patterns.
Behavior-focused nutrition education will be integrated into the curriculum from pre-K through Grade 12. Staff members who provide nutrition education will have appropriate training.
School meals will meet the USDA nutrition standards as well as provide sufficient choices, including new foods and foods prepared in new ways, to meet the taste preferences of diverse student populations.
All students will have designated lunch periods of sufficient length to enjoy eating healthful foods with friends. These lunch periods will be scheduled as near the middle of the school day as possible.
Schools will provide enough serving areas to ensure student access to school meals with a minimum of wait time.
Space that is adequate to accommodate all students and pleasant surroundings that reflect the value of the social aspects of eating will be provided.
Students, teachers and community volunteers who practice healthy eating will be encouraged to serve as role models in the school dining areas.
If foods are sold in addition to National School Lunch Program meals, they will be from the five major food groups of the Food Guide Pyramid. This practice will foster healthy eating patterns.
Decisions regarding the sale of foods in addition to the National School Lunch Program meals will be based on nutrition goals, not on profitmaking.
-- Information for this report was obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Web site.