Until the new cafeteria opens, "we won't have the variety we used to have, but we will serve a school lunch," said Levi Wingard, school principal. ''We'll just do the best we can."
Wingard said the prices of the school lunches will be slightly higher than usual until the new construction is completed. Sandwiches, for instance, will cost 65 to 75 cents.
"That's a little expensive when kids are trying to make it on $5 to $6 a week," said Wingard.
The new cafeteria, which will be more than twice the size of the old one, will have additional serving lines, a salad bar, an outdoor eating area and a larger kitchen.
A new library also will be built as part of the construction project. The library, which will be double the size of the current one, will house 12 personal computers for the students, additional shelf space and 120 more chairs.
Until March, the students can use the library only for resource materials and encyclopedias.
"We will also have a new conference room and career resource room, which we have not had before - and it's shameful," said Wingard.
The district, too, is working to solve its student parking problem. Wingard said that student parking was inadequate before the construction began but is now even worse. As a result, only seniors can park in the school parking lot.
He said the district is trying to buy two or three acres behind the school in order to expand parking and athletic facilities but that no agreement has been reached.
The construction was partly responsible for a sit-in staged by 300 of the school's 600-member senior class in the Wagner gym more than a month ago. The students protested after learning that the traditional senior brunch and bonfire and the senior field trip would be canceled. The brunch and bonfire were to be canceled because of the construction, but after the sit-in, Wingard rescheduled both events.
The brunch, traditionally prepared by the students' mothers in the school cafeteria, was catered, and the bonfire was held, despite the presence of construction materials.
But the senior field trip, usually to Washington, Philadelphia or Baltimore, was not rescheduled because teachers were needed to attend an in- service day.
