Students attending Cape Coral High School this year will be the first to enjoy the facility’s newly renovated cafeteria.
Construction on the antiquated cafeteria began in April and students ate lunch under what teachers and administrators nicknamed the “Big Tent.” The project concluded this summer and now students are enjoying their new eatery.
“The new cafeteria at Cape High is remarkable,” said Superintendent James Browder. “For years they didn’t have a cafeteria that was welcoming.”
Administrators from the school commented about how the cafeteria in place for the 2008-09 school year was relatively the same from when the school opened in 1979. It had only underwent one minor addition where an area outside was enclosed for some extra seats.
Renovating the 40-year-old cafeteria was one of a number of targeted projects approved by the Lee County School Board. The total project cost at Cape High was $10 million and now it resembles a cafeteria from one of the district’s newer schools such as Ida S. Baker High or Island Coast High.
“It’s one of the projects we put to the board because that cafeteria did nothing for children,” said Browder.
Lee County School Board Member Robert Chilmonik visited Cape Coral High Monday morning and described the new cafeteria as “beautiful.”
“When you walk in it looks like a food court at a shopping mall,” he said. “They have more room and they don’t have to have kids outside.”