Kodiak's East Elementary tells school board lunch duty costs 45 minutes a day

Kodiak's East Elementary, a K-3 school, has one cafeteria worker for 251 students, so every day the principal, the school counselor or the instructional coach spends 45 minutes helping serve lunch, according to a report set to go before the Kodiak Island Borough School District board Monday.

Ana Francisco has been the school's only cafeteria specialist since its cafeteria aide position was eliminated last year. Meanwhile, more students are eating: East started serving free breakfast and lunch to every student this year, and lunch participation has climbed.

The report says lunch runs well only with a second person serving alongside Francisco, so students get through the line with time to eat before recess.

"While we are all willing to help wherever needed to ensure our students are fed, this arrangement takes valuable time away from instructional leadership, teacher support, and student social-emotional services," Principal Audra Morrow wrote in her monthly report. It is "not a sustainable long-term solution," she wrote.

Mornings bring a different job. East has no nurse in the morning, so the office secretaries and Morrow handle about 25 student health visits each morning, from vomiting and high fevers to wasp stings and asthma attacks. Every visit has to be assessed and recorded in the student health system.

Morrow raised both problems in her report to the board in October, when she wrote that East has nurse coverage for only half the school day. "Student health needs do not end when nursing coverage does," she wrote.

The board is also set to vote Monday on the district's food service budget.

In September, the district laid out three options for the board, two of which would close the school in summer 2027.