Overcrowding In The Eisenhower Lunch Room
YAKIMA - KIMA has learned there is a major overcrowding problem in the Eisenhower High School Lunch room. You brought it to our attention, so we checked it out. KIMA was there when the bell rang. And it was shoulder to shoulder students packed into a lunch room that's not designed to hold them all.
" Sometimes I eat lunch, sometimes I won't because it takes so long then the bell rings," said Ike student, Amanda Hahn.
These students have 50 minutes to get their food and eat lunch. Sounds like a lot of time, but with just one lunch hour for 2,000 students, it's actually harder than you think.
Lorelie Riveras said, " Yeah, there's so many people I don't want to like waste my whole lunch."
So Loreli eats out of a vending machine. But on an average day, about 750 kids go through these lines. To eat in a lunchroom with a legal capacity of only 500.
When the lunch hour was half over most of the tables were still full. For the kids who got in line late, they had no where to sit.
So a lot of students sit in the halls to eat. Or cram more to a table in the cafeteria. And that could be a fire safety issue. While KIMA was there, Yakima City Code Enforcement also showed up, to follow up on a complaint from a parent.
" I have not had any parents call or have a concern. We've addressed concerns in the past, but nothing recently," said Principal Stacey Locke.
Code Enforcement officer Joe Caruso told me he would work with the school to address these safety concerns. And the principal said they're already working on a plan. The two will come together by Thanksgiving to share possible solutions.
" What we have been talking about in the past to expedite what we currently have is to have satellite systems in place. We'd be feeding kids out of different areas like the gym foyer," said Locke.
Until those changes are made, students may just have to come up with their own plan to get in and out of the lunch line and eat, before the next bell rings.
The new IKE High School won't be finished for another three years. But there will be a lot more room for students to eat together once they get there. The new commons area will hold 850 to 1,100 students at a time.
" Sometimes I eat lunch, sometimes I won't because it takes so long then the bell rings," said Ike student, Amanda Hahn.
These students have 50 minutes to get their food and eat lunch. Sounds like a lot of time, but with just one lunch hour for 2,000 students, it's actually harder than you think.
Lorelie Riveras said, " Yeah, there's so many people I don't want to like waste my whole lunch."
So Loreli eats out of a vending machine. But on an average day, about 750 kids go through these lines. To eat in a lunchroom with a legal capacity of only 500.
When the lunch hour was half over most of the tables were still full. For the kids who got in line late, they had no where to sit.
So a lot of students sit in the halls to eat. Or cram more to a table in the cafeteria. And that could be a fire safety issue. While KIMA was there, Yakima City Code Enforcement also showed up, to follow up on a complaint from a parent.
" I have not had any parents call or have a concern. We've addressed concerns in the past, but nothing recently," said Principal Stacey Locke.
Code Enforcement officer Joe Caruso told me he would work with the school to address these safety concerns. And the principal said they're already working on a plan. The two will come together by Thanksgiving to share possible solutions.
" What we have been talking about in the past to expedite what we currently have is to have satellite systems in place. We'd be feeding kids out of different areas like the gym foyer," said Locke.
Until those changes are made, students may just have to come up with their own plan to get in and out of the lunch line and eat, before the next bell rings.
The new IKE High School won't be finished for another three years. But there will be a lot more room for students to eat together once they get there. The new commons area will hold 850 to 1,100 students at a time.
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