Students To Line Up at Old Lunch Counter for Last Time Friday;
On May 5th Demolition Will Begin
by Dennis Gonzales & The Pratt Tribune
April 30, 2008
The last lunch will be served at the Pratt school cafeteria, built in 1962, on Friday. When the students clear out, an equipment supplier will move in to help maintenance staff remove equipment that will be used at the new Pratt High School slated for completion in time for school to start again next August. Equipment that will not be used has already been sold, according to Superintendent Glen Davis.
On May 3 an asbestos removal crew will do their job, utilities will be disconnected on May 5 and demolition will begin the following day.
For the last 12 days of school, Pratt students will eat sack lunches. A yesteryear image of students toting home-packed lunches in a Karo syrup bucket is not quite accurate. The cafeteria staff will prepare lunches at the Pratt Municipal Building and deliver them to coolers at each attendance center. They will meet all nutritional requirements of the school lunch program.
Everyday offerings will include a sandwich, fruit and vegetable and sometimes extra items like chips or cookies, Sharon Ward, food service director, said. Breakfast items will include cereal, muffins, poptarts and similar foods that don't require refrigerated storage. Milk and juice will be available.
"We're trying to mix it up and that's the hard part," Ward admitted, but said in 12 days the same kind of sandwich may be repeated only once or twice.
A cookout is being considered for one day.
At Liberty Middle School, students will go along with the picnic theme on nice days, eating outside near the concession stand. The LMS gym is the alternate site. The gym at the high school is the designated lunchroom for those students. Elementary students have always had their own lunchrooms where meals delivered by the central kitchen are eaten.
Vacating the cafeteria on May 2 will give construction crews an additional two and a half weeks to get started on the wrestling facility at the west side of the new school addition, so it can be completed by fall, Davis said. The dirt contractor will be able to put fill dirt in place at the front of the school and to start work on the parking area.
Davis encouraged students to look at lunch changes as "a great adventure."
There will be no changes in staff. Dishwashers won't be needed, but will be reassigned temporarily to custodial duties, Davis said.
Davis reminds that early in the project he wrote to USD 382 patrons about "the patience needed to make the community's vision a reality.
"I compared the wait to the children's story of the chicken who baked bread. We are nearing the time when we can cut a fresh slice and taste the finished product."
Students To Line Up at Old Lunch Counter for Last Time Friday;
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