As part of the $26.9 million referendum, the district plans to construct a new cafe in the current location of the school store that will be open to PHS students beginning in the fall of 2020. This transformation is intended to ease the crowding in the cafeteria and provide a new space for students and staff to hang out during break.

“[Creating this cafe] is something that we've actually been [planning] for the past couple years. One of the concerns was that because we have one lunch break, which we actually like, you [end up having] a large number of students trying to get lunch at the same time. If we had more than one location [that served food,] that would facilitate kids having more time to actually eat lunch, instead of standing in line,” said Principal Jessica Baxter. “We don't have that much space here and the school store is mostly an online business as it is, so we really don't need a [physical] school store.”

The food offered in the cafe will be similar to what is currently served in the cafeteria, but with a greater focus on ready-made snacks, like smoothies and pretzels, so that the cafe can operate in more of a “grab and go” format. The cafe will begin serving food at break, but will stay open longer than the cafeteria.

Baxter claims that the school store area is conducive to operating a cafe because there is little construction necessary, other than adding an additional door to the room. It is also centrally located in the school in an area with lots of natural light.

“The footprint of the school is not changing,” said Baxter. “We’re not doing too much construction [on the store]; we just have to add the equipment to it, so it’s actually a nice, cheaper option. [The store also] offers a big enough space for kids to gather there.”

The request-for-proposal to renovate the school store area into a cafe has not been placed out to bid yet, but the goal is to begin construction in June and have the cafe ready for students by this September. Baxter believes that completing construction on the cafe should be a priority for the district among the other referendum projects being worked on at PHS this summer.

“This project has not been put out to bid. It's not going on until the end of [February] or early next month. But as long as it gets approved, then this would be something that would start after graduation in June,” said Baxter. “[The cafe] is one of those things I really wanted them to do first, so that even while we're under construction and are losing [access to] a few classrooms and part of the fitness center, at least we have a nice new space that people can get excited about.”

Currently, the cafeteria allows students to make food requests that they will cook for them, as long as students provide the recipe for it. Karen Lee Dixon, PPS’ food service director, hopes to continue this process with the new cafe.

“We're open to food requests at any time, because I understand that what [students] like to eat is very different than what I like to eat,” said Dixon. “We have a very diverse population here, so we want to make sure that we're catering [our food] to everybody. [The cafe] really needs to be student-driven.”

Dixon hopes that the new cafe will make PHS’ food more accessible for students, so that it’s easier for them to buy school meals.

“One of the things that I'm hearing from students is [that they] don't even go down into the cafeteria. Well, if you don't come down to the cafeteria, then you can't eat our food. So we need to find other places to put our food, so it's more convenient,” said Dixon.