By Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta
Voice Staff
Cafeteria seating at Bailey Middle School was a bit tight. Without much spacing, students were having lunch during five waves throughout the day to have comfortable seating, according to principal, Rob Bohan. And with the warmer weather finally here, there’s an added benefit: air conditioning.
In addition to an undersized cafeteria, the school is not air-conditioned. During the warmer months, they’d open windows. The lack of air conditioning, the tight seating, and the early lunch waves were issues that needed to be addressed.
While there were officially no complaints, according to Bohan, who became an administrator in 2013 and principal in 2017, an improvement on the outdated cafeteria was welcome.
Ken Carney, the Building Committee chairman, was asked by the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro to add to the cafeteria using Emergency and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, part of the American Rescue Plan network of federal dollars.
The winning bidder was W.J. Mountford Company, who built the cafeteria using a design from KBA Architecture, an award-winning provider of professional design services. The project budget was budgeted at $2 million. When all was completed, only 1.7 million was spent.
The project started at the end of the last school year and was completed in time for the incoming students to use the facility in September. The completed cafeteria is more spacious with more natural light, a new drop ceiling, and an additional food line for “grab and go” food.
“We’ve gone from five lunch waves to four waves,” said Bohan. “We can get more kids comfortably seated. It increases our instructional time. More students are in the classroom. It’s a big win for us.”
Both students and teachers were very receptive to the cafeteria’s enhancement, according to Bohan.
“It’s always interesting when you do something new to try to keep everybody happy,” he said. “We’re a seventh and eighth grade only. Incoming seventh graders didn’t know any better. But eighth graders were wide-eyed over the bigger space. They got a kick out of it. Everybody was excited, teachers, staff…We didn’t get parents calling, but anybody that saw it was very positive. At the Board of Ed meeting, early on in the school year, we talked about the spacing with positive feedback.”
Carney called the transformation, “Amazing.”
The design got high marks.
“KBA Architecture was outstanding to work with. They did a fantastic job,” he said.
Carney further explained that they bumped the front of the school out and got 2500 square feet of additional cafeteria space with a metal pitched roof.”
Carney also shared that compliments were received regarding the gorgeous new gray brick and added that the building department, The BOE facilities department, the West Shore Fire Department, and city officials worked tirelessly and made it all happen quickly.
As for the air conditioning, it is now a reality.
“We’re going to need it in May and June. It’s up and ready to roll,” Bohan said.
Visit Harry M. Bailey middle school at: https://bailey.whschools.org/.