WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee this month discussed a new policy addressing outside food and beverages in the classroom.

 

But members of the panel reflected the tricky line that schools must walk between allowing fun and enriching events on school time while protecting potentially vulnerable children in the district's care.

 

And they are looking for more community input to guide their decision.

 

"We don't currently have a districtwide policy," Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the committee. "Varying superintendents and principals at varying points of time have had different rules in different schools. Things have evolved based on all kinds of factors. This is the School Committee's first time trying to weigh in on this topic.

 

"Mount Greylock has never had any kind of set procedures that I know of. The two elementary schools, I think over the last 10 years, have vacillated between a few different things depending on whether concern over food allergies has been prominent in administrators' and families' minds versus if people have prioritized the joy that comes from food.

 

"That pendulum, that balance, has swung back and forth over the years, and it's absolutely something people feel passionately about in all kinds of directions."

 

One set of priorities revolves around things like shared food brought to celebrate birthdays or holidays that are important to an individual child and family's cultural heritage. On the other hand are, as Bergeron noted, issues involving food allergies as well as other dietary concerns, like pupils with Type 1 diabetes who require strict carbohydrate counts and insulin injections to cover food; think of a 7-year-old who has such an injection and then eats more than or less than the "planned" portions of an unfamiliar food.

 

The School Committee's Policy and Governance subcommittee brought forward a proposed revision to the district's Wellness Program policy that seeks to address some of those concerns. As drafted, it would limit outside food in the classroom to educational activities (not, say, birthday parties) and require a principal's permission for an elementary school classroom teacher who seeks to use food in a lesson, family notification in advance of that plan and the use of a commercial kitchen that "provides comprehensive nutrition and allergen information."

 

The proposed policy would be slightly different at the middle-high school, where outside food and beverages could be distributed only for "school-sanctioned celebrations and curriculum-related activities," families would be notified in advance and no commercial kitchen use would be required.

 

In addition to the draft policy, the committee was shown a report of anonymous feedback from district staff on the proposed policy changes, with responses ranging from, "Because of allergies and family food diets and preferences, I think this is a good policy," to "Taking away food as a celebration will take joy out of the classroom. There are ways to be inclusive and keep children with allergies safe."

 

In answer to a question from subcommittee Chair Jose Constantine, Bergeron told the full committee he did not have data on any history of allergic reactions from food distributed in the district's classrooms, but he said he might be able to find those numbers.

 

Constantine told his colleagues that he saw three possible alternatives for the panel: maintaining the status quo of no districtwide policy; implementing the policy as drafted with different tiers for the elementary and middle-high schools; or implementing a uniform policy that covers all three district schools.

 

"I struggled with very different policies for the elementary schools and the middle high school," Constantine said. "It just feels arbitrary to me."

 

Carolyn Greene said she agreed that the middle school piece was "puzzling."

 

"I'm kind of leaning toward: What we do at one school, we should do at all schools," Greene said. "It feels like at the high school, all bets are off. Students have to be responsible for their own food safety at some point, and that point might be ninth grade. I don't know.

 

"We can say there are no celebrations in the classroom that revolve around food. The same policy can work through 12th grade, I think. … Changing culture for the safety of our students doesn't seem like too much to ask."

 

School Committee Chair Julia Bowen said she could see how the many perspectives people had on food in the classroom could come into conflict.

 

"I do fundamentally believe food is a way to unify and bring people together and learn about people's cultures," Bowen said. "I don't want to lose that. How it happens — when and how it can happen holding safety first — is the question."

 

Bergeron said Bowen is not alone.

 

"The Wellness Committee, with hours of discussion, Julia, was in the exact same boat," he said. "And what was said was: We want safety. The only way to do that is to give advance warning and use a commercial kitchen. How about we try that?

 

"That was a very creative answer that the Wellness Committee tried to put out there. Is it perfect? No. But that's what the Wellness Committee tried to put out there."

 

Bergeron also noticed that there are reasons why it might make sense to have one policy for the elementary schools and another for the middle-high school.

 

"As [Greene] said, at a certain stage, students start to go to restaurants, go out on their own, eat together," Bergeron said. "How do we manage that?"

 

Constantine said the Policy and Governance Subcommittee, which next meets on Nov. 5, would continue to work on the outside food section and the rest of the Wellness Program policy and bring it back to the full committee at a future date.

 

In other business at its Oct. 8 meeting, the School Committee gave initial approval for a spring 2029 field trip to Germany, Austria and Hungary for music students at Mount Greylock.

 

Teachers Jacqueline Vinette and Patrick O'Connell told the committee about the planning for the '29 trip and shared the impact of a similar trip they led in 2025.

 

"We specialize here in the performance aspect of music education," Vinette told the committee. "That's our passion, and I think that's the students' passion. But this trip really gave our students a chance to experience the history and the cultural connections and listen and analyze and understand how music relates to the development of so many other subjects, too.

 

"As much as we love the performance piece … we think diving in from a history perspective … is a good way to hit the listening, the analysis and the understanding across curricular objectives."

 

Vinette said while the price of the trip in 2029 still is unknown, the current thinking is that it will be in the neighborhood of $4,000, and getting approval in October 2026 allows families to start saving and planning for the experience.

 

"We will definitely invite parents to be involved [in fund-raising]," she said. "As music teachers, we've got access to a lot of fund-raisers that core classroom teachers might not see. We have these community events [like concerts] built into our curriculum."

 

At the outset of the Oct. 8 meeting, board members thanked former Chair Christina Conry for her years of service. October marked her final monthly meeting after her decision not to stand for re-election in November.

 

At the end of the meeting, the panel acknowledged that Conry might not be the only member not still in their seat after Nov. 3.

 

"Regardless of who is sworn in by [the Nov. 12 meeting], any current committee member I'd love to see those people on that Google meet, even if it's just to say hi and thank you and bye," said Curtis Elfenbein, one of three committee members running for re-election this fall.

 

"I plan to show up whether re-elected or not, because it's a habit at this point. Whatever happens, I'll be here to say, ‘Ha ha ha,' and then log off."