By Alexandra Dalton
staff writer
@alex_dalton04

Upgrades in athletics facilities might be the highlight of the Coppell ISD bond package passed in May 2013 but the student body at Coppell High School will start benefiting from a revamped cafeteria in the fall.

The renovation of the cafeteria was originally planned to go forward, but, because of funding, it lost its place amongst the heavy construction.

In October, the Coppell Board of Trustees prioritized the upgrade and size increase of the cafeteria because of the surge in enrollment at Coppell High School. The funding found by the board included an approximately $1.5 million increase in the General Fund Balance, which was recently confirmed by the district’s auditors, $300,000 from the Child Nutrition Fund Balance and $900,000 from Coca-Cola and gas lease revenues.

The CHS administrative staff and the Board of Trustees saw the need for the kitchen addition, but they needed a way to organize funds in order to go through with the plans.

“In brainstorming various ideas of how to add the kitchen back into the projects to be completed in 2015,” CISD Assistant Superintendent for Business and Support Services Sid Grant said. “The idea was proposed to use these monies in order to help fund the kitchen project. Our Board of Trustees agreed that this would be a good use of those funds.”

The project is targeted to redesign the serving line to an open concept so that more students could be served at a time and have a larger option of food choices.

“We need to ensure that our child nutrition staff has the ability to prepare and serve larger amounts of food in order to feed more students within the limited time we have for lunches,” Principal Mike Jasso said. 

Although the size of the cafeteria will not increase, the amount of seating will; creating a larger environment for the growing student body to enjoy their meals.

“While this addition will not increase the size of the student seating area, it will enable our child nutrition department to offer more choices for food,” Grant said. “This will allow students to be served more quickly and efficiently.”

Despite the slight disruption of the progress of the overall bond package, the completion of the cafeteria is attuned to the end of the larger construction. On top of the kitchen addition and upgrades, with the new indoor multi-purpose practice facility and the new competition arena, Coppell will be fortunate enough to improve even more about the district. 

The bond package plans will leave campus to improve another sports area.

“Next year in the summer of 2015, we will be renovating the turf and track at Buddy Echols Field,” Grant said.

With exciting renovations coming to Coppell, the plans for this city detail a future of new innovations and an improved standard for living.