School cafeterias may get upgrades

Lunchtime can be crunch time at some Highlands County district schools thanks to cafeterias originally designed and built for much fewer students.

Hill-Gustat Middle School's cafeteria was remodeled about a year ago and Avon Park Middle's cafeteria was expanded recently.

Sebring Middle School is slated for remodeling, and plans call for both Avon Park and Sebring middle schools to be redesigned to add a third serving line.

Avon Park Middle Assistant Principal Richard Rucker said the dining area was expanded into an adjacent space that was a chorus room.

During the three lunch periods, students sit at the tables waiting for their turn to enter one of the two serving lines.

"What we do is we line them up, and this class goes first today, and this one goes first tomorrow, and each one has a chance to go first," he said.

It sometimes takes 20 minutes to get everyone through the serving line, Rucker noted. So they have 10 to 15 minutes to eat.

With pizza on the menu Friday, all the students made it through the serving line within 15 minutes.

Food Service Director Martha Brown said serving lines will be added to both Avon Park and Sebring middle schools similar to Hill-Gustat where there's a little better flow for the students to get their lunch.

"When our cafeterias were built in these schools, we had significantly less students," she said.

It's set up for a straight-line system where students just file in and get their offerings.

Now schools are offering a wider selection, not the old "take it or leave it" school lunch, Brown said. More serving space is needed for the bigger selection and additional students.

"It's just congested; one on top of the other," in the cafeterias now, she said. "It is overcrowded at the high-noon time, both in the dining room at Sebring Middle particularly, and in the serving line."

The cafeteria at Hill-Gustat Middle has more serving counters so students can see the healthy food choices being offered and then be more likely to select them, Brown said.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the school board will consider hiring an architect to design the dining room remodeling project at Sebring Middle School.

The board will also consider hiring an architect to prepare redesign plans for the serving lines at both schools.