More Students, More Lunches

Jake Pedersen 
Staff Writer

Apex High will have three lunches for the 2012-2013 school year due to an increase in the student body with an expected enrollment of 2,500 students.

Apex students gather in the cafeteria for lunch.

 “The biggest jump in numbers is going to be in the freshmen class. Those are kids not going off campus,” said Principal Matt Wight. ”If you go in there [the cafeteria], especially if it’s cold or rainy, there are very few places to eat. We want lunch to be a time when people are not jam-packed.  We really don’t want kids to be sitting in the cafeteria like sardines,” stated Wight.

Lunch will still be 40 minutes to allow juniors and seniors to go off campus. Class periods will continue to be 90 minutes. The biggest change will come with the addition of the new lunch that will require a split class period.

“We’ll still have to have 40 minute lunches. Because [that’s] just the amount of time for kids to leave and get back and enough time for our kids on campus to make sure they have enough time to eat and have some free time,” said Wight. He adds, “Some classes won’t have the split lunch such as science class because you start an experiment [or] P.E. because the kids change. But for a history class, or a math class, splitting lunch won’t make that much of a difference.”

Even though more people will be on campus, only juniors and seniors will be allowed to go off campus, as board policy states.