Is it necessary to remove lunch ladies, janitors, and security guards to create better schools?
In mid-June, the lunch ladies at Deneen Elementary School on the city’s south side were serving up one of their last meals. LUNCH LADY: How are you? What do you want? Carrots or salad? Fewer than half of kids meet standards here on state tests, so Deneen is being forced to start over. As a “turnaround,” every adult has to leave, from the principal to the teachers to the seven lunch ladies. Veronica Fluth was Deneen’s cook. After insisting I put on a hair net, she gave me a tour of her spotless kitchen. FLUTH: These are ovens. This is a steamer. This is just a real powerful microwave. Fluth remembers what she felt when she found out she’d be losing her position. FLUTH: I thought it was unfair. Because I was told it was based on the student’s academics. In which we have no control over that. We control the food. And we shouldn’t have been involved. We’re not in any classrooms, we’re in the lunchroom. CAWLEY: Clearly it starts in the classroom and the instruction. Tim Cawley says if you w
