Lufkin ISD school board to consider new updates for HS cafeteria

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - An outdated layout design at the Lufkin High School’s cafeteria serving lines is causing disruption and shortening students’ lunch period. “How can we design this space to be the most efficient where we get kids in, and get them fed, and taken care of,” said Lufkin ISD nutrition services director Amanda Calk. She first brought the cafeteria’s need for renovations to the school board in 2019. Calk says the current serving line layout was designed to feed 800 students during the ‘90s. Today, they are serving 1,200 students a day. “It’s supposed to mimic a food court. Well that creates a lot a chaos in this area when we have a lot of kids in here trying to get to these lines, and get their meals, and get to the cash register, and get out there to have enough time to eat lunch,” said Calk. The original project was to reconstruct the entire serving area, but once the pandemic hit, the project was paused. “We had a pretty major renovation to take place. Moving walls, tearing walls down,” said Calk. Now inflation is one more setback they have to deal with. Calk says it would cost $1.5 million. So, she went back to the drawing board, working with architects to scale down the project which bought the cost down to an estimated $800,000. They will keep the same layout but add updates to their serving areas and “we’ll also have more guard rails as well because that will help control the flow of traffic,” said Calk. The Lufkin School Board will meet Thursday. They are expected to decide on a contractor for the project, paid with using student nutrition funds.