Cafeteria receives a makeover: new tables, new murals

Students looking for a bite at the cafeteria this year found a few new changes that go beyond the color of the Jell-o at the desert counter. McCallum was one of two Austin high schools to receive funds for renovating its cafeteria. 

Johnston was the other school to receive a grant for a new cafeteria. 

As freshman vice president, Kayla Miloy, was on the committee of about a dozen student council members who aided in the design of the cafeteria over the summer. 

“AISD hired a design team,” Miloy said, “and we went with them twice in the cafeteria for about an hour.” 

Milloy said she didn’t see the changes until August when the rest of the students did. Many seniors have not even seen the improvements. 

The trophies that were displayed have been taken out, and booths and high tables have been installed. 

The changes to the cafeteria environment weren’t just superficial. Along with the new position of lunch counters, students will notice a variety of new food choices and the absence of a few options that were here last year. Cafeteria manager Laura Standsel describes some of the new items on the menu. 

“We’ve made a huge improvement both in the structure and in the quality of the food,” Stansel said. “We did away with a lot of the things we served last year. We bought a new pizza oven; it’s a lot more nutritious and not Mr. Gatti’s anymore. We brought in a salad program, a sandwich program, [and] we’ve given you more choices in the milks. You now have three choices of low fat milk. The whole idea is to regroup and try to give you more nutritious choices.”

Stansel is now inundated with hundreds of new students at lunch, due in part to the new food. 

“It has actually doubled our numbers, so kids who have never eaten here are now eating here and kids that we didn’t even know went to this school, eat here,” she said. 

Stan said, the new menus were as important in bringing students to the lunch line as the new decorations. Part of the school authorities’ plans, she said, we’re to attract students to the cafeteria, so they eat inside instead of outside. In addition, the cafeteria is designed to help keep students on campus.

“It can be as pretty as it wants to be, [but] the kids aren’t going to eat it if it’s not what they want,” she said.

With a new year, comes a new look

Landscaping in front and windows in the English hall greet students

After coming back from what seemed kike a long summer break, senior Alex Toprac began walking towards the main office when he noticed changes to the edges of the side walk. As he looked around him, he noticed that there had been other changes. There are now large flowerbeds in the front. 

“The landscaping creates a nice environment,” Toprac said. “It definitely creates massive amounts of natural beautification.” Toprac said the improvements made to the landscaping was a great use of the district’s money to help with the beautification of the school. Not only did the district use money to improve the landscaping details of the school, but they also used the money to replace the old, dirty and broken windows in the English hall and brought in new windows. Before the new were put in, the old windows in the English hall would occasionally fall out if not opened properly, and some were even bolted down to prevent students from opening them to allow the windows to fall out. 

“I think [the windows are] a great improvement,” principal Mike Garrison said. “I think it increases the appearance of the building.” 

Garrison also said the new windows should help out with the temperature of the classroom. By taking away the glass bricks that once lined the outside wall above the windows and putting in glass windows, it allows the room to heat up from the sun or cool off by allowing the warm air to slip outside when the room becomes too hot.

The landscaping that took place in front of the school and the new windows that took place in the English hall came from the district’s bond money to help improve older schools such as McCallum. Further school bonds, which finance school improvement like these, were approved in a special election held Sept. 11. 

Some future changes that Garrison hopes that will take place are to put in a sidewalk leading from the side doors of the cafeteria that lead to the portables and also create some sort of seating area for the students to sit during lunch or in the morning. Also, Garrison plans to get rid of the rock and dirt behind the main hall leading to the baseball fields, and to put in a retaining wall to hold back the dirt to keep it from running on to the basketball court. 

Not only is the administration trying to take care  of the landscaping to help out with the beautification of the school but they are also hoping to replace windows through our school. 

“I think [the windows] are just beautiful,” English teacher Jennifer Troy said. “They make everything look so bright.”

These articles were originally published in The Shield on September 17, 2004.