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Dinner Is A Ball For Students

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: February 4, 2009

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Like other schools preparing for the FCAT, Pierce Middle does practice tests, vocabulary drills and math word problems.

But it adds a dash of oregano, 150 pounds of ground beef, 50 pounds of pasta and six 5-gallon buckets of tomato sauce.

The school annually kicks off testing season with a community spaghetti dinner that attracts hundreds - not just students and their families but also alumni, school board members and the superintendent. The dinner has been a tradition for 11 years.

Pierce Principal Victor Fernandez started it as a way to encourage family involvement and inject a dose of fun into a stressful time for students as they prepare for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

"The kids themselves, they really look forward to this," Fernandez said.

They dine on pasta and salad, listen to a motivational speaker and get information about what to expect when testing starts. This year the dinner was Thursday and featured a Super Bowl theme, said Mary-Alice Kelley, Pierce's career specialist. The school held drawings for tickets to the NFL Experience, a football theme park set up for the Super Bowl, and items autographed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers players.

They also had a book fair and family photo booth.

Tickets for the dinner cost $5, and money made is donated to the school. Contributions of food, sodas and supplies from local businesses help offset the costs, and the staff supplies the labor.

The day of the dinner, teachers work from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., handling preparations and cleanup around their regular class schedules. Earlier in the week they are making sauce, boiling noodles and baking meatballs.

"By tomorrow night, no one wants to see spaghetti for awhile," teacher Paula Haggerty joked the day before the event.

Haggerty, Pierce's family and consumer sciences teacher, heads the school's culinary classes. The students learn about food safety and preparation, and run a take-out cafe with hot and cold meals for teachers about once a month. But in late January, the students take on meatball duty.

She listed the ingredients on the dry-erase board in the classroom, and students got to work, mixing herbs and breadcrumbs with the meat and scooping generous amounts in ice cream scoops. They lined the meatballs on a tray and sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese.

"They get better at this every year," Haggerty said.

Fernandez will be leaving Pierce to take over as principal at nearby Leto in April. But he said no one needs to worry about the spaghetti dinner's future.

He not only wants to continue it, he wants to expand it to include Leto and another of its feeder schools, Webb Middle. He thinks it could be possible if a corporate sponsor steps up to offset some of the time and cost for the schools involved.

"This is a legacy," Fernandez said. "I want to continue growing."

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503.

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