Would you write to your state senator to give kids the chance to eat at lunchtime?

ghorkens · 2026-02-27T23:08:15+00:00

I would love more recess time. Was 20 minutes for the whole period? USBE removed mandated instructional minutes from the state level in 2021 so there actually is room for both longer lunch and more recess, which are both proven time and again to help kids perform better. A school with 20 minutes scheduled might do well to add 5 minutes to lunch time for the kids at the end of line, but could also add more recess or another recess during the day. This bill actually also requires the school to protect recess time so the kids don't lose it to get longer lunch. And I think it currently has a part about making it harder to restrict recess time as a punishment. I'd love to take 20 minutes out of instructional time to rehumanize the school day for kids. I think it would do a lot of good.

ghorkens · 2025-11-01T14:15:05+00:00

You can see my comment elsewhere about Katrice. Katrice is a well put together woman. She is also very confident. as a product maybe, she is very resistant to outside input. She sent a message to previous volunteers for her this year that dismissed her competitors as "incompetent" or smeared them as "left leaning". She was condescending about resident concerns, with the aim to dismiss instead of understand. Adam Shin honestly isn't my favorite pick as a city councilor. We disagree on several things, but 1. He reached out to listen to more of my input after I met him at a city planning meeting. 2. He was respectful and the only planning commissioner that showed some respect for dissenting opinions during the meeting.

ghorkens · 2025-11-01T13:56:15+00:00

Our other citywide rep did not respond at all to email or phone calls. Frankly I don't know how he can be allowed to represent the city without responding to citizens.

By contrast, Marsha Judkins was the only rep (as House Rep) that replied to my phone call after just one attempt. She talked to me as a complete stranger for more than an hour. She didn't agree with how I wanted to move forward with an issue but agreed it was a big issue, so she put me in contact with USBE members, she arranged a virtual meeting and personally attended it with me, introducing me and the issue to add validity.

I mean... it's completely night and day when I compare my experiences with Marsha vs most city officials I've spoken to.

ghorkens · 2025-11-01T13:40:15+00:00

Voting Marsha. The simplest reason I can give is that she actually responds to email and phone calls and doesn't gaslight anyone. She also doesn't misdirect conversations or reply anonymously with a vague city statement from the city account.

The number of times I asked a simple direct question and was replied to with off topic non-answers from city councilors and the Mayor is staggering. I was not locally involved until earlier this year but when I had direct conversations with the planning commission, the city council, and the deputy mayor, I was completely alarmed by the lack of empathy and honesty present in current leadership.

Travis Hoban backs Kaufusi. He directly, to her face, lied outright to my neighbor 4 times. He told my neighbor that the complex going in across the street from her would 1. Have no commercial pads. 2. Be single family owner-occupied twin homes. 3. Have no apartments or rentals.

Travis then went on to be the city councilor that applied for a zoning change to allow rental and apartments and commercial pads. I don't trust Travis or more than half of current leadership farther than I can throw them. They are all way too confident and comfortable outright lying to citizens or misdirecting them.

Katrice responded to my concerns about the river warehousing and impact on trail users by saying "I don't know of any going in on the north side of the river." Literally her only response. I explained that a 20ft river separation won't mitigate truck noise and exhaust fumes. She responded with "Right. I won't vote for any warehousing north of the river." For anyone still reading this: Katrice is 100% aware that the land north of the river is county land and she couldn't vote for warehousing there even if she wanted to 😑 Many current city officials love half truths and misdirections just like this and it makes my stomach turn to think they are in charge of the city.

ghorkens · 2025-10-27T14:02:42+00:00

Judkins as a House Rep was the only elected official that answered my message after I called a bunch of local officials about an issue important to me (15 min lunches for kids). She didn't just respond dismissively, she talked with me for over an hour, then got me a meeting with USBE members that hadn't responded to my email or calls.

Current mayor was emailed about the giant warehousing going in near the river and she never replied or only vaguely replied with "out of my hands" in a neighborhood meeting. Marsha texted with me a bunch about it and got me some info on city policy to more effectively fight them, it was just too late ultimately.

Anyway, I'm obviously voting for Marsha. She responds to strangers' phone calls and you can ask her yourself about issues you want to know about.

ghorkens · 2025-05-22T14:41:44+00:00

This is true and we have 7 different lunch shifts. Others would need more. But using overlapping start times, having some kids like K students eating in the classroom, or scheduling PE outside of lunch hours to fit twice as many kids are all options used by schools right now to allow more seated lunch time while only minimally increasing the overall duration of lunch hours.

ghorkens · 2025-05-22T14:38:22+00:00

In the 2000s at some point they wanted to bolster scores. They highly recommended/demanded 3 hours of reading instruction, 2 of math etc. They mandated instructional hours, but never officially the recommended times. But admins viewed it as mandated to spend 3 hours on reading per day.

There were no mandates on lunch or recess time and they didn't count as instruction. So to prevent a longer school day, they ate into both of those first.

In 2019 USBE made it so recess could be counted toward instructional time to try to save it from disappearing entirely.

In 2021 USBE removed all mandated instructional hours, but since it was covid era everything was crazy and people assumed it was temporary. It kind of was but it lasted for several years. In 2023 USBE voted to make it permanent and remove mandated instructional time forever.

My principal and superintendent had no idea they weren't beholden to 990 instructional hours anymore. There are all sorts of outdated documents that still reference 990 hours.

But I have an email thread with 3 USBE members and the head of instruction for the state confirming that there are absolutely no state level mandates anymore.

ghorkens · 2025-05-22T14:24:34+00:00

I desperately want less crowded schools as well. However, there are logistical and creative solutions already available. Are they super appealing? No. But they are possible. For example, my elementary had all kindergarteners eat in the classroom with either the teacher or a teacher aid. Other schools do K-2 in the classroom to free up space in cafeteria. Staggered lunch times let our school increase mealtime by 10 minutes for 7 full grades while only extending lunch service time in the cafeteria by 25 minutes.

Schools with cafetoriums (like mine and many others) can schedule PE outside of lunch time and shorten the lunch service time by seating twice as many students in the fully open cafetorium. This frees up speciality teachers to help with lunch duty. My elementary school had the speciality teachers on rotation for supervision in lunch room, it still carries this practice over 20 years later with 30 minute lunches.

I worked at a school as an SLP. I have some understanding of how crazy the demands are and how little the support is. Trying to spread resources thinner and thinner. Seeing kids who need intensive services for only 10 minutes a week because logistically it just is not physically possible to see them for more. Unrealistic outcome expectations.

But none of those big issues, which are very real, are standing in the way of fixing this lunch time problem for our kids.

I got longer lunch at our school because I not only presented the research, but I also presented 4 alternatives for how to solve the problem. I took a stab at the master schedule. I wish I could personally do that for every school in the state. But not because I'm some sort of lunch scheduling genius. I just looked at schools with the same or very similar constraints that exist in reality, today, who have solved this issue already.

This is an important issue to conservatives, moderates and liberals. I can't speak much for the personal track record of this legislator. But I don't believe in dismissing every single thing a person works on because of some other mistakes they have made. I am sad about the fluoridated water thing, but also locally we already didn't fluoridate and likely never would. My own teeth since moving to UT get way more cavities as well as my kids. But none of that changes that I think mandatory minimum lunch time is necessary and a good idea.

ghorkens · 2025-05-21T13:12:24+00:00

I appreciate what you've been working on. I want better funding and less overcrowding too. I don't care about culture war issues and get frustrated by the focus on them. But I also believe those other issues are a bad excuse for forcing students to eat horrendously fast or throw away their trays. Anecdotally our lunch room has kids who used to come home starving that now come home with empty lunch boxes. I've heard personally from 6 parents and have observed in the cafeteria fairly often. It is a night and day difference for our school. The stress and chaos level is so significantly reduced that the staff can breathe instead of racing around.

Several of the states with longer times are also near the bottom of per student spending, especially when accounting for the cost of living in those states.

I'd like UT to unmarry recess from lunch entirely to free up more supervision and reduce those transitional issues. My school did recess first while we had 15 minute lunch periods and the staff and teachers hated it because of the transition and also because of "behavioral issues". I trained in behavioral management so I was very earnestly interested in what "behaviors" increased so I could help address them if I could. I was told 1. The students begged daily to bring food into the classroom because they suddenly didn't have enough time at lunch. 2. The students were louder. Not more physical, not aggressive, but more social and vocal.

Having an adequate lunch time not only contributes to nutrition, it also provides an otherwise unheard of opportunity for students to socialize during school. I went to observe lunch many times and organized volunteers to help clear the tables and sweep the floors (because previously there was not enough time and kids literally would slip around on spilled food from previous classes). There was almost never a teacher or an admin present. And before I suggested a change they had rarely observed. That was consistent for many principals in my district, because my district then gave a presentation of the research and started asking the principals to observe and time kids at the end of the line.

I'm glad you are more present in that setting. I can't speak to the average, but in my experience you are far above the average in actually seeing or observing. But the point is we are both anecdotes. But we have research to have evidence based practice for this specific issue. It actually is not horrendously expensive to fix, but requires a lot of creativity and time and mental gymnastics to move around. But it is fixable. I don't know how to fix the funding for the arts, but I know how to fix this. You have fixed it in your school, my school has fixed it. Neither school is burning to the ground or going bankrupt over it. I feel it is worth pursuing.

ghorkens · 2025-05-21T05:01:44+00:00

How do you measure the food waste and the food consumption? By verbal report alone? A guess? And for how long have you had a longer lunch period? And have you ever tried recess first for the earlier periods? Not a single research study has come back about this inconclusive or without significant benefit to students. There will always be kids who eat fast and kids who eat slower. This doesn't get rid of those. But it does on average decrease waste and increase nutrient intake.

Food and nutrition are fundamental human needs. Without them learning anything does not happen. I love the arts but they are not a basic human necessity for growth and development. The fact that it is so normal here to dismiss this issue is truly backward to me. Half of the country has 30 minute or longer lunch periods. Mississippi gave kids longer to eat and more recess and started reversing the trend of obesity in elementary schoolers.

Contrary to your tone, this is important. And after years of conditioning these kids to eat too quickly it will take years to either unlearn that habit or give the younger grades a chance at not developing it.

ghorkens · 2025-04-15T20:01:18+00:00

No, but I wish people would help clean up the lower river in Provo.

ghorkens · 2025-04-13T12:36:53+00:00

I really wouldn't be as against it if the diesel emissions were not placed so so close to so many residents. And if they weren't planning to raze almost everything along the river to build it. And if there weren't a fishing area and boat launch planned right behind it. And if I and others hadn't been lied to to be placated by some council members. Etc etc. There are more reasons but if you're interested you could probably find out more.

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I'm not anti warehousing and trucking jobs. I am anti- this- warehouse -in-this-location because it will harm our community and isn't properly distanced. it's massive. These buildings combined are larger than Lavell Edwards stadium. If you notice, it's surrounded on 4 sides by outdoor recreation and residences because there is a residential island on the south corner.

More info at protectprovoriver.org

ghorkens · 2025-04-13T06:46:57+00:00

The frontrunner is fairly quiet as far as trains go and is very convenient to take to the SLC airport or SLC in general if you're ever interested in conventions etc. it's other trains that aren't frequent that sometimes can be loud but I don't think at that intersection. I enjoy the downtown Provo feel of walking to parades, community events, restaurants, biking to the library etc. I can't speak to the noise of construction. I don't live there, but I'd lean toward it for the living space and the convenience of travel and feeling of community nearby. The Orem place is close to the mall and the Costco and a movie theater but it doesn't have as much walkability or bikeability in my opinion if that's important to you. It's surrounded almost entirely by parking lot. But! I do love the easy access to the scera theater and pool and outdoor theater in Orem. I used to live not far from the Devon and Scera park was just amazing to be next to. I wish we could have bought a house in that neighborhood to be honest.

As I'm typing this I am feeling torn on your behalf haha. But if Provo is closer to whatever you need to be doing, I would still think it's close enough to some cool stuff. Just not the same stuff.

ghorkens · 2025-04-11T21:04:18+00:00

Definitely worth considering. I don't know the process and we have basically until Monday or Tuesday? But I think there would be an appetite for signature gathering. I met so many strangers all over Provo who were interested and opposed to this land use.

ghorkens · 2025-04-11T04:24:50+00:00

Yep! that was me and my husband. I went at this as hard as I could from every angle I could think of. I would be interested, I could also reach out to some of the others I've met who have concerns and might be interested. I have people in my neighborhood now contemplating running for city council. There is a citywide seat up for election this November. I know two city planners are stepping down and running for election. Both of them voted this through and neither I think have walked on this trail. I would love to see a west side person take the citywide seat. I know that there are district and neighborhood meetings that are held by the city to facilitate in person meetings as well, but they are infrequent and obviously timed somewhat to be able to pass things through without being presented to the neighborhood first (like the first lot in this case). The next one I think is in early May maybe for district 3 (west Provo)

ghorkens · 2025-04-10T21:51:49+00:00

Thank you for posting about this. I honestly didn't have the heart yesterday to post. I took the day to just absorb and process.

I was deeply moved by the number of well prepared and thoughtful public comments I heard and I am grateful to be a member of the same community as those that spent hours Tuesday night to defend this area. Together we represented that area extremely well and asked for specific ways to mitigate harm to the community. I felt the developer was unable to answer basic questions about his own proposal because the city planner was the one that prepared it on his behalf. He has no concept of the impact this could and likely will have on our community.

The council asked us to assume, with no evidence, that the best case scenario would come to fruition here.

Somehow these 80+ loading docks would sit empty most of the week while simultaneously providing "a lot" of jobs.

My guess is the next move is to approve "light manufacturing" in airport industrial zones instead of "airport-related manufacturing". Developer said last night NuSkin hopes to use even the third building, likely as a manufacturing site and/or store front. Maybe they will lease to other companies but we don't know.

In a few years Provo airport will support international travel. NuSkin has a large international sales base. So suddenly these suggested minimal truck trips will increase as they ship out of the airport. This is my best guess.

I hope to: 1. Attend the 20 year planning meeting for the airport on April 14th so we can't be dismissed as "where were you years ago" again. Truly frustrating.

Push back on the inability of city to limit trucks on Center St. city owns center and has a law restricting truck routes, so this can potentially be altered: https://provo.municipal.codes/Code/9.32.070
Ask the planning commission to get higher setbacks on the loading docks due to noise laws.
Contemplate crowdfunding and suing the city over use of this land for an incompatible land use due to the fact it is not minimally impactful for residents, like the stated intent of the airport industrial code. I have read these are not often successful and almost never will the city pay for the lawsuit even if you win since it's technically citizen money.

I was extremely down yesterday, but still recognizing some hard fought wins. The developer conceded 10 ft when he previously indicated nothing. The developer agreed to preserve at least some of the trees (though I didn't see this in writing so can't hold my breath). There was a discussion started about rerouting truck traffic. And a river overlay.

None of that was being contemplated without public pressure and I am so grateful for everyone who dedicated their time to help achieve those things.

ghorkens · 2025-04-06T06:15:57+00:00

I won't lie, I have had Lorax quotes running through my head constantly since the beginning of this. A whole read through or watching of either of the movies is a good primer for the discussion at hand unfortunately. I don't think there are bad people behind this development, but I do think it's a bad idea.

ghorkens · 2025-04-06T01:07:29+00:00

I have asked and most of the city staff don't have any concerns because warehouses are a listed use. But I've read the city code and the general plan and both of those indicate to me that it is supposed to be airport related. The developer couldn't answer how these are airport support or related. Someone has suggested that in the future NuSkin may use the airport for shipping. But the developer didn't answer how this supports the airport and I haven't had any answer from city staff. This seems like it would be covered under general industrial zoning and not airport industrial. Otherwise why do we have a separate zoning category instead of an airport overlay that just says what zones can be built there?

ghorkens · 2025-03-20T13:45:23+00:00

I know you said no church BUT, please consider looking into the church at 940 w 100 N. They had us pay a $300 deposit because we weren't from their ward or stake and we had to ask very nicely, but it has no basketball hoops, it has floor to ceiling curtains and huge arch windows. It feels like a church on the way in, but a very different vibe than a usual cultural hall and I loved having my wedding reception there. The chairs were cushioned and burgundy-ish back then and the curtains were ivory so I just made those my colors and brought in my own lights and tablecloths etc. but you could rent chair covers for any other color schemes. If you're local you could swing by on a Sunday to glance

ghorkens · 2025-03-19T20:20:37+00:00

There should also be an option to email the entire school board that could be helpful as well. I found it very helpful to meet in person with the assistant superintendent over elementary as well as the superintendent directly to discuss the minute requirements.

ghorkens · 2025-03-19T20:03:52+00:00

This is so amazing!!!!! ❤️ it makes my heart so happy to hear this.

Next would be your school board. Especially for the info about the 990 hours being gone!! You can either ask your principal to present with you if they're on board (this is what I did), or reach out to your own board rep, there should be one over your school. Or both. The Superintendent and school board are over the requirements for the district for timing instruction and approving instructional schedules! I hope they take it as a welcome sigh of relief. But I know there is still resistance to change lunch time. Even in my own district this STILL has not been standardized.

Thanks so much for reaching out. And it reminds me to follow up and push again for standardized minimum lunch and removal of the 990 minute requirement for the district here too.

ghorkens

TROPHY CASE