conner

LUNCH. The new kitchen prepares for the first day of normal lunch since the start of school. Lunch lady Karen smith knows that lunch can be chaotic in the kitchen if everyone is not on the same page. “We spend quite a bit of time prepping and cooking food. There is a lot of communication about what needs to get done still.”

​​On May 24th after the last bell rang and students had cleared the campus construction workers were in the cafeteria starting the renovations. Construction workers were on campus all summer working on expanding the size of the kitchen and updating the appliances. There were many moving pieces and unfortunately, some setbacks with equipment put them behind schedule causing the students and staff to get creative. 

Returning students found a lack of seats in the lunchroom when the year kicked off. There are around 360 students in each lunch shift and only 280 seats making them roughly 100 seats short. Their quick solution was to throw out some folding tables, but the school has put in an order for 27 new tables that will seat 16 students each. Assistant Principal Zach Dudley knows that the new cafeteria has been a shock and an adventure for the staff and students. 

“I think that it’s a learning curve and we have done as good of a job as we can,” Dudley said. 

Lunch Lady Karen Smith has been wanting a remodel for a few years now, the appliances such as the dishwasher would break down, causing them to switch between Styrofoam and plastic trays. The staff believes the kitchen has been chaotic to work in due to working around workers and equipment.

“I feel like it came together fairly good. There were issues with some stuff,  but it was a big remodel job,” Smith said. “I feel like it needed to be redone because equipment was getting outdated and overall the kitchen just needed to be updated.”

There are 4 lunch shifts each 20 minutes long. Lunch lady Meme Baker feels as though she has been running everywhere during lunch. 

“We should go back to a 6 shift lunch schedule because it was easier and didn’t take much time for people to go through and was giving them a chance to see the options then get the food,” Baker said. 

Cafe workers from all over the district came together to set up the cafeteria so students would have a good first lunch. The cafeteria began serving hot lunch on Sep. 18.