By ANGELA WEAVER
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — Approximately 150 McBroom Junior High students packed the cafeteria Friday morning as part of a breakfast to reward students for their grades.

Staff photo/Angela Weaver: Seventh-grade McBroom Junior High student Cheyenne Niekamp, right, hands a donut to an eighth-grade student during the third quarter Rider Time in McBroom Cafeteria on Friday morning.

Began this year by principal Ken Neff in collaboration with McBroom Student Council, Rider Time is held in the cafeteria from 8:15 a.m. to 8:35 a.m. at the end of each grading period.
“It was something we had done at my previous school,” Neff told The Evening Leader on Friday at the third quarter event, adding that the end of the year event at his former school was called Breakfast of Champions. “It was to reward kids who had done exceptional during the year.”
Neff said the program was then changed to a quarterly basis.
“If we do this on a quarterly basis, the kids who didn’t make it the first time had a chance again,” he said.
Neff proposed the idea to McBroom Student Council adviser Sheri Schlosser who liked the idea and they began the program at the end of the second quarter.
“We had 115 kids here at that one,” Neff said. “There are 36 kids who didn’t make it last quarter who did this quarter.”
The student council members who help hand out the donuts and milk and direct traffic in the cafeteria, Neff said, are also expected to meet the expectations to attend Rider Time to help.
Three of those student council members were eighth-grade student Paige Dicus and seventh-grade students Tannar Rutschilling and Alecksa Agler, who helped direct students to their side of the cafeteria based on their grade level.
“The students get a reward for doing a good job during the grading period,” Rutschilling said of what she liked about the morning events. “And you get free donuts and milk.”
Dicus and Agler said they liked that the event allows the students to get out of homeroom to eat.
Seventh-grade student Weston Hirschfeld, who helped hand out donuts, said he liked the honoring part of the event.
“That it rewards kids who really worked hard throughout the year,” he said.
Eighth-grade students Leslie Leal, Jaclyn Smith and Erica Weigel said they also liked the reward aspect.
“We followed our four expectations,” Weigel said.
The three students and Chloe Mitchell and Megan Sudduth, also sitting at their table, then named the expectations to The Evening Leader — be prepared for class, be positive with your words and actions, show respect for other people’s space and belongings and be where you’re supposed to be at all times.
“We get to eat,” said eighth-grade students Mitchell and Sudduth.
Neff said the students at Friday’s breakfast represented 45 percent of the McBroom population, adding that he would like to see that number increase.
“But like anything you do positive, it takes time to take effect,” Neff said. “It’s a way to reward students for their good behavior. We want students to succeed, as well as prepare them academically as well as behaviorally.”