Photo by kimberlyfayeA bill that would provide meals for low-income students on days schools are shut down over winter weather was vetoed by Mayor Vincent Gray over concerns about funding and endangering children, leaving one Councimember was created the legislation “baffled.”
Introduced by Councilmembers Mary Cheh and David Grosso, the Student Nutrition on Winter Weather Days Act of 2014 passed unanimously by consent in October. The bill required the Office of the State Superintendent to create a plan by October 2015 to provide meals to students who received free or reduced-price lunch when DCPS schools are closed on inclement weather days. The schools included would have to meet three criteria: “First, at least 50 percent of the enrolled students must receive free or reduced-price lunch. Second, at least 50 percent of the enrolled students must have family incomes less than 185 percent of the federal poverty line. Third, the school must have the physical capacity to store sufficient amounts of shelf stable food to distribute to students on days school is canceled due to inclement weather.” Beyond that, creating specifics for the plan was tasked to OSSE.
In a letter explaining the veto dated November 18, Gray presents three concerns about the bill, which he said on the surface is “laudable public policy.”
The bill specifies funds from the federal Summer Food Service Program be used for the program. Gray said the United States Department of Agriculture, which operates the program that contains SFSP, “has indicated that it will likely disapprove of the use of federal funds in order to pay for meals for students during winter weather closures.”
Gray also states that the bill “would potentially endanger thousands of children and adults by asking them to venture into a dangerous winter weather situation.”
“Asking parents to send their children into a storm that the government has declared dangerous is reckless,” he said. “Further, the bill includes no identified funding source for hazard pay for our employees that would be forced into a storm under its provisions.”
The third concern Gray lays out in the letter is the exclusion of charter school students: “Considering the requirement for the District to provide essentially identical funding to charters as to traditional public schools, it is difficult to see how the Council can justify the exclusion.”
Reached by phone, Cheh said she was “completely baffled,” “surprised” and a “little annoyed” by the veto, adding that the Gray administration had given no indication it had issues with the bill. OSSE, she said, worked on the bill and was supportive of it.
“The bottom line about all of this is it just calls for a plan,” Cheh said. “It gives great latitude as to the variables that can be considered.
“The objections that are thrown out by the mayor are readily responded to.”
For example, the federal government has before given similar waivers for extreme weather, and the committee report calls for OSSE to find a way to include charters.
“We’re asking [OSSE] to come up with a plan. If there are obstacles to doing it this way, maybe they can do it another way,” Cheh said.
She also took issue with the mayor’s claim that the city is sending kids out into dangerous weather: “We’re not sending anybody anywhere. What we’re doing is saying, ‘Can you come up with a plan for kids who rely on school for breakfast and lunch and sometimes dinner?'” For example, the bill allows OSSE to decide if food should be delivered the day before a storm to schools or directly to students.
“It just seems to me that in his rather flimsy basis for vetoing this bill that he is just searching, maybe desperately, to flex his muscles on the way out,” Cheh said. “To appear that he’s active and relevant.”
Grosso declined to comment through his office.
The Council may override the veto by two-thirds vote within 30 days. Cheh said she’s yet to speak to Council Chair Phil Mendelson and her colleagues about the possibility.
Read the veto letter, via Susie Cambria, below.
