LITTLEROCK SCHOOL SHOWS OFF ITS NEW CAFETERIA.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

LITTLEROCK -- Students, the staff and school officials celebrated the opening of Alpine School's new cafeteria and kitchen with a ceremony Tuesday.

The expansion of the school's 1950s-era cafeteria and kitchen cost nearly $1.1 million..

"Everybody is excited. It's bright and clean and new and modern, and the cafeteria personnel love all the additional space, and it's much more efficient and much more safe," Principal Randall Jolin said before the ceremony.

"The old kitchen -- all the codes were different back then -- didn't meet current standards at all. It was an essential and necessary improvement."

The cafeteria was supposed to have opened last spring, but bad weather and issues with adding a modular building delayed the opening to September. The ceremony was then postponed for months in which officials said reaction on campus was positive.

"The kids are very ecstatic. It's nice to have a full-functioning kitchen back there, all nice and new," Assistant Superintendent Steve Doyle said.

The old kitchen and cafeteria, designed for 100 students at a sitting, were too small for the school whose enrollment now tops 600.

The size of the building was increased by about one-third. The project was paid for with developer fees and money set aside in a special account for cafeteria remodeling and modernization work.

The school itself was built in 1929, with the original cafeteria in the basement. The current cafeteria and kitchen were built in 1958.

District officials had been discussing improving the kitchen situation since about 2001.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Fifth-grade students gather outside Alpine Elementary School's cafeteria and kitchen Tuesday for a celebration of the campus's new food facilities.

(2) School district officials tour the new kitchen Tuesday at Alpine Elementary School in Littlerock.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer