https://www.sidwell.edu/mobile/index.aspx?v=c&mid=375&t=Lunch%20Menus
Here’s what their kids are having for lunch tomorrow
November 2, 2015
MS/US
Acorn Squash Soup
BLT Chop Salad
Vintner’s Salad
Philly Cheese Steaks
Roasted Portobello, Pepper & Cheddar Pane Ciabatta
Roasted Acorn Squash
Corn Chips
Strawberries
And, I’m guessing, under the eyes of discreetly armed security guards.
I imagine that budget pressures also come into play. Sidwell parents pay for their kids' meals. Inner city schools have turned into comprehensive three meals a day feeding operations in which lunch money has to compete with pay raises for teachers, school security, more pay raises for teachers, benefit increases, pay raises, transportation, pay raises, athletics, and pay raises. And of course, academic instruction, which gets what is left over.
Maybe parents should go back to packing a lunch, just to be sure. A radical and perhaps subversive thought, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Sidwell Friends originated as a proprietary Quaker school in a rowhouse in downtown Washington. It was Sidwell's School before Mr. Sidwell got married, and The Sidwells' School after. The Sidwells were apparently gifted educators, and the school prospered and grew. The Sidwells were professionally successful and became affluent enough to join the early suburban exodus. This was back in the trolley era, so they purchased a small farm way out at the end of the trolley line, in what was still countryside.
Over time, "the farm" got incorporated into the life of the school for field days, nature study, picnics, etc. Time marched on, the Sidwells passed, the farm was left to the school, and when time came for expansion, the farm was a natural place to move the main campus. Meanwhile, of course, with the coming of the automobile, the city grew up around it.
The point is, Sidwell has an expansive campus for perfectly good historical reasons; it got the land before suburban sprawl inflated prices. As a result, it had acreage to play with. The classroom buildings were built at a distance from the highway. That was probably done for aesthetic and noise reasons, but today it presents a security advantage as well. Fronting Wisconsin Avenue today is a sunken parking lot topped by a soccer field. One classroom building is visible from the road beyond the field. The rest are out of site downslope.
I'm not a Sidwell parent, but between summer camps, school and club athletics, student theatricals and musicals, etc., I've been on the campuses of most of our local big names schools. Many of them have impressive campuses, but Sidwell's is one of the easiest to secure and is probably the best insulated from potential car or truck bombs. Even at schools like Georgetown Prep, Washington International, Stone Ridge, the Congressional School, the Potomac School, etc., which have large off-road campuses, an attacker could easily drive a vehicle right up to, or into, a classroom building. The Sidwell layout prevents that.
And of course, it is relatively close in, which minimizes the commute (itself a security factor), and it is a great school.