Colton, CA— Starting at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year Colton High School is transitioning from two lunches to only one.
This decision makes CHS the only school in the Colton Joint Unified School District to have a single lunch. This year is a trial year. If proven effective, then other schools across the district may consider making a similar change to their lunch time arrangements.
“This change addresses the issue of students being separated from their friends during lunch, fostering a more enjoyable experience for our students,” said Colton High principal John Abbott. “Additionally, consolidating to one lunch prevents students from skipping class and falling behind academically, ensuring a more focused learning environment.”
Before changing the schedule, CJUSD employees went to nearby high schools with single lunches. One of these schools was Upland High. Despite an enrollment of about 3,200 students, they reported a successful, proven single lunch period.
Colton High used to have a population of about 4,000 students years ago when there were two lunches, but now with the school only having about 1,700 students there is no need to split everybody in half.
With this in mind, there are many potential benefits. However, this kind of change can be challenging and hard to get used to.
During registration, students talked about the change, with mixed opinions. Many liked the idea of being with all of their friends, while others worried about seating, and possibly the threat of violence with increased crowds.
Administration and staff are choosing to focus on the positive, while preparing for the possibility of issues. Among the benefits of the single lunch is that insteading of hosting school activities for two lunches, there is now only one event students can focus on. This also brings the opportunity for clubs to hold lunch meetings.
ASB Director Alexandra Buskirk said, “I anticipate a positive change as events can now involve the whole school, and organizations only have to prepare for one event for lunch instead of two. It will be a bit of a shift in the beginning for everyone, and everyone will be impacted, but I am not worried about students getting food in a timely fashion since our nutrition services are amazing.”
As Buskirk shared, the cafeteria’s facilities are equipped to serve 600 people every 12 minutes. Food services will also be opening up their kiosks outside the multipurpose room for additional service.
Also, due to this change Colton High is working to expand the lunch area and create additional benches so more students have the opportunity to sit down and enjoy their meal.
Not only does this affect the students, but it also means the custodians only need to clean the lunch area and MPR once, security will not have to worry about students sneaking into a different lunches, and teachers can now spend their lunch with whichever teacher they want to hang out with.
Time will tell as to whether or not the new single lunch schedule will work at CHS, but in the meantime, the benefits look to make it worth the effort.
