Lack of tables doesn't sit well with students
G-NG cafeteria can't fit them all
Special to The Monument
BY ROSANNA STANTON

Gray-New Gloucester--John Q. Public sits while hurriedly wolfing down his slice of pepperoni pizza at G-NG High School. But John isn't sitting in the cafeteria, he is sitting on the lobby's dirty floor. There is no room for him, or the 388 other students who eat outside the lunchroom. They sit or stand in the halls, lobby, or class rooms during the 30 minute lunch period. This is because there is inadequate seating in the school cafeteria.
There are 684 (including 33 Raymond students) currently enrolled at Gray-NG High School. The school provides lunch seating at a maximum of 296 students. 56% of the student population can not sit and eat their lunch.

However, fire code capacities allow for only 173 students in the cafeteria. The total number of tables actually in the cafeteria during lunch is 14 octagon tables and 7 rectangular tables. The rest are placed in the hallways. The cafeteria holds approximately 196 students plus during lunch.

We tape-recorded answers of students sitting in the halls and classrooms to the following questions "Why are you sitting out here?" "Because everybody else took up all the room...there are no tables." "Because we like it." "Because we fight back and forth with some other kids for a table, they take it, then we take it back." "The cafeteria is crowded, full of people making loud noises." "We usually sit outside."

"What do you think about this?" "It's cold, we get a draft from the door, and it's dirty." "We like sitting on the floor." "We don't need a lunch table." "I think it's pretty inconsiderate that they can't get enough tables for us." "I wish I had a place to sit other than the floor." "It's their choice to sit on the floor."

"If a table were available would you sit at it?" "Yes." "No, we like it here on the floor." "We like sitting by this wall, if we had a table here, then sure."

"There are a few tables with extra spaces at them, why don't you sit there?" "We all can't fit, there are only a couple of seats here and there." "Not enough room for the people in our group." "We do some times, like if one of us has a bigger meal that would be hard to eat on the floor then a couple of us will sit down with them at a strange table until they are finished eating." "Because we get shunned, if I were to sit over there they'd just kick me out." "Those people (seniors) are mean to us."

"Do you have any suggestions for improving this situation?" "More tables" was suggested by 27 students of the 35 we interviewed. "Open the west gym again." Mr. Steve Bartasius, a science teacher at the high school, said, "They need to create more space. You know, either actually having a better set-up they used to have down in the gym, or either build an addition onto the cafeteria. If they did that it would increase the capacity by at least 100 people."
Principal Mr. Scott Lydick declined the opportunity to have our conversation tape-recorded so all information from that conversation comes from notes. Mr. Lydick said that he also noticed the problem of the lunch seating at the beginning of the year. He ordered 30 tables. They cost $500 each. The school's budget capital improvement plan only had enough money for 16 new tables. "There are 15 on order for next year, but I'm not seeing them being used," Lydick said. We went in asking for an interview and proclaiming that we were writing an article. We asked him if he was aware that many of his students could not sit down and eat their lunch at a table. His response; "I don't think you should assume that 200 plus students want to sit down and eat their lunch."

We asked what the other options to help reduce the crowded lunch room might be. His reply was there are two options. One, keeping it the way it is now, students eating in one 30-minute block, every body gets where they are going at the same time. The other option is to have three 30 minute lunch periods. The cafeteria doors would be locked with staff letting students in only if they have a pass. With 3 period lunches Mr. Lydick was concerned with students "making bad decisions" such as skipping classes to be with their friends, or rearranging their schedule to match a friend's and not the classes that they might be better off in, but the classes that are just required to graduate. Asked about the possibility of reopening the west gym for lunch use, Lydick said that there wasn't enough staffing. Three more supervising staff members would be needed. The state labor law says that every employee has to have a 30 minute lunch break. There would not be enough time for teachers to keep in the boundaries of the law.
With the schedule the way it is now, Lydick said, the only people that do not have their regular lunch break are Mr. Lydick himself, Mr. Tim Richards the assistant principal, and the school officer Mr. Goan.

With the shortage of space in the lunch room several students have drifted to class rooms around the building to find a quiet, place where they can sit and relax during lunch. In order for them to do that there has to be a teacher in the class room at all times. This creates a problem for some of the teachers. They are not allowed to leave the class room so this restricts them doing other things that they may need to be doing such as; making phone calls to parents, photocopies, talking with other teachers, and eating their lunch.

The seating situation may be corrected next year, but what happens now? Mr. Lydick said he ordered 15 new tables on order for next year, but where are they going? The school needs more staffing to open another room for lunch such as a gym. With the budget frozen for this year, there will be little financial funding from the school itself. If you have a suggestion, question or comment about this article please call Sound Off at The Monument at 657-5353 and leave your view on the subject. No need to leave your name. Your feed back will be a great help to finding a solution to this problem.