Approval of a millage increase by patrons of the Blytheville School District is desperately needed, according to Charles Van Pelt, the district's director of operations.
The annual school election will be Sept. 15 in the board room of the school's administration building on Park Street.
Approval of the 2.61-mill increase and refinancing of current bonds will generate $2.9 million for the district. All funds raised will be used to facilities directly related to education, not athletic facilities or salaries, Van Pelt said.
The most pressing need in the district is for a cafeteria at Central Elementary School.
The school is now using a multipurpose room for a cafeteria. The room is also used for physical education, school programs and the like, Van Pelt said.
The enrollment at Central this school year is 530 children. Under Arkansas Educational Facilities guidelines, a school with an enrollment of 550 students needs a kitchen area of 2,200 square feet. Central's kitchen area, including the food prep stations, serving line, dishwasher area, food storage area and all, measures less than 1,000 square feet.
Seven women work in 981 square feet of space, 178 days each year, feeding 530 children breakfast and lunch.
The seven are nearly crawling over the others to get their work done, said Dorothy Green, cafeteria manager.
The state guidelines require 655 square feet of serving area alone. "That's almost as big as our whole kitchen," Green said.
Guidelines specify that school kitchens need 200 feet of storage space for dry goods. At Central, the workers use large racks that are placed in a closet. Most of the space in the closet is taken up by a freezer, because there is not enough space for the freezer in the kitchen.
Not only does this mean the spaces are crowded, but the workers waste time and steps going to the closet to retrieve food items and bringing them back across the kitchen to the stoves.
A single dishwashing line is used to wash more than 1,000 trays each day, Green said.
"We just do the best we can with what we have," Green said of the situation.
The state guidelines require 5,475 square feet of dining space, yet the multipurpose room has only 4,200 square feet, Van Pelt said.
Because the cafeteria is also used for PE, workers have to move the lunch tables at least twice a day and clean the floor in between activities. The workers also have to sanitize each lunch table after a class finishes lunch because another class needs to use the same table.
"It takes quite a bit of our time," Green said.
Central School was originally built in 1960 as one of two elementary schools in the district. Since that time, the facility has been enlarged twice, in 1972 and in 2007, but the kitchen and dining facilities have not been expanded. The rest of the school has been enlarged, but the cafeteria hasn't, Van Pelt said.
If the millage is approved, work on a new cafeteria will begin right away. "We've already chosen a site and designed it," Van Pelt said.
The new cafeteria will be located near the back of the campus, where buses now load and unload. The location was chosen because the most recent building expansion included canopies on all walkways. "The kids won't ever have to walk in the rain or mud," Van Pelt said.
The cafeteria construction project is expected to cost $1.5 million. Construction will take more than a year, Van Pelt said. "We hope to have it ready for us by spring semester, 2011."
Patrons will also elect two school board members.
Carlony Lewis is challenging Ollie Lofton for her seat on the Blytheville School Board and Scott Jowers and Tracey Ritchie are both seeking the seat vacated by Bill Sullivan. Sullivan was appointed last year to finish the term of Jim McMahan, who resigned.
Early voting begins in the County Clerk's office on Sept. 8 and continues through Sept. 14. Votes can be cast at the courthouse from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. each day, Monday through Friday.
dhilton@blythevillecourier.com