By Nicole Falco
Students in grades K through six in all four District 13 schools had the opportunity to experience democracy firsthand by casting their vote for one of three healthy snacks - a Kellogg's Nutri Grain cereal bar, frozen fruit bar or veggies and dip. The snack that received the most votes districtwide will be introduced in all four schools next fall. The district declared May 16 "Democracy In Action Day."
"The greatest reinforcement [of the democratic process] will be when they come back in September to see the snack they actually chose offered in the lunchroom," said Frank Huplosky, Howell Road School principal. "This is as realistic as it gets."
Adding to the realism was the fact that students casted their votes in an actual voting booth provided by the Nassau County Board of Elections. The Board of Elections provided one handicapped voting booth per school for the students' election. Polls were open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. with teachers acting as poll workers. Class lists were used as voter registration rolls. Students' signatures were required before voting. Election results were available after polls closed last Tuesday, after press time.
The district hoped that by getting students excited about voting, it would encourage their parents to come out and vote as well.
"We're hoping that not only does it give children a sense of what a democracy is and that they have a say, but that it encourages parents who may not normally vote to come out and vote," said Dr. Elizabeth Lison, superintendent of schools.
Adding to the district's desire to promote a better understanding of democracy among students and encourage parents to lead by example, the District 13 Board of Education is required to adopt a wellness policy, Lison said, and the vote gives students a choice.
The federal government has mandated that as of July 1, districts must develop and adopt a policy regarding nutrition and physical education, and all food sold at school must have nutrition labels. While the district must set guidelines, it's up to the district what those guidelines are. Introducing a new healthy snack is just one wellness initiative planned by the district. Future ones include fitness assessments of students by physical education teachers, eliminating snacks as a reward, offering healthy food alternatives for celebrations centered around food like birthdays and participating in fund-raisers that do not center around the sale of so-called junk foods.
In order for students to head to the polls well-informed voters, teachers at the Howell Road, Willow Road, Wheeler Avenue and James A. Dever schools integrated lessons on democracy and the election process in the classroom.
For example, Howell Road School first-graders in Stacey LoBello's class been read books about democracy and voting such as "Duck for President" by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin and "America Votes" by Linda Granfield. LoBello explained to her young students what to expect when they enter the voting booth. Students drew pictures of and learned about the three healthy snack options so they know what they are voting for. And students voted on something different everyday, from what name to give LoBello's goldfish to which Mem Fox book they like best.
"They are really getting a great understanding of voting from all of this and they are really excited about it," LoBello said.
During a recent lesson in Matthew Stashin's sixth-grade class at Howell, students discussed the kinds of things they should consider when making a decision at the polls. In Janet Gonzalvez's fifth-grade class, student teacher Sarah Tauber followed up a class reading of the book "Vote" by Eileen Christelow with a discussion on why voting is important, asking the right questions to become an informed voter and how to actually cast a ballot in the voting booth.
In Debbie Hasting's fourth-grade class at Willow, the word democracy was used as a springboard for a discussion on choice, voting, the president, the mayor, elections and more. And Sharon Marioni's fifth-grade class has been discussing bias in the media. Students have been writing both biased and unbiased essays. Last week, Marioni asked them to write essays on whether or not they think students should have a say in what is served in the cafeteria and offer three supporting reasons for their position.
"They wrote those essays not knowing they would have a say," Marioni said. "They got so excited when they heard they were actually going to have say."
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