Board suspends policy regarding food treats in school

NEW LONDON – After hearing feedback from district teachers and parents, the New London Board of Education has suspended the implementation of a wellness policy that advised staff not to use food as an incentive for students and directed parents to not send food items to school to be given to other students for such things as birthday treats.
The decision to suspend the policy to allow the district’s Wellness Committee to review it again took place at the board’s Aug. 12 meeting. The board had previously approved the second reading of the then revised policy at its July 8 meeting. The New London Press Star reported on the revised policy in its July 16 issue.
At the Aug. 12 board meeting, Board President John Heideman said he has received “a ton” of feedback from families and employees in the district who felt that the decision to approve the revisions to the policy was “rushed.” He said he feels more discussion is needed, and he’d like the district’s Policy Committee to review it again.
“I don’t think that we should’ve moved this quickly on this and I think it requires some more thought,” Heideman said.
Heideman said it does not seem like the district is following the policy, as he referenced a report given by district staff earlier in the meeting in which two examples were cited in which the district used food as an incentive.

Board Vice President Katie Batten said she also heard feedback from a lot of district residents and staff regarding the policy update.
“I probably haven’t heard from this many people since the COVID years,” Batten said. “I’m like, you know what, I’m not above saying maybe I didn’t make the right decision, maybe I did. I need more info.”
Board Treasurer Mark Grossman, who was absent from the July 8 meeting, said he thinks there is room for a compromise to allow students to bring food treats for other students, but also to protect students who have allergies.
“People don’t want more trinkets and trash,” Batten said. “We want to make them feel special, but does everybody need another trinket, spinner, or eraser?”
Batten said she’d like to receive more feedback from district staff.
While Grossman said there was room for compromise, he added that using food treats as an incentive should not become “a normal thing in a classroom.”
“If everyday I do something that gets me a piece of candy, that’s not an incentive, that just becomes a process of the day-to-day activities,” Grossman said.
Batten pointed out that the updated policy that was approved by the board was presented to the board twice, as is required.
Board Clerk Holly Schweitzer said most of the complaints she heard were about not allowing students bring food birthday treats to school for other students.
Heideman said he’d like to suspend the implementation of the revised policy, pending a review of the policy by the district’s Wellness Committee and Policy Committee.
Grossman added that he’d like to have a school board member as part of the review by those committees.
“As you can see, what happened here is, it’s a pretty big issue,” Grossman said.
He said he was also unaware of the district’s Wellness Committee.
Heideman said he’d like to have at least two board members as part of the review of the policy.