At the beginning of the school year, administrators changed the structure of the lunch line from individual lines behind each window to one line that leads to a staff member who then directs you to a window.

Principal Gil Alvarez says the new system has helped reduce cutting and speed up the process of getting lunch.

“It takes 5 minutes and 30 seconds max from the back of the line now to get to the window,” Alvarez said. “When you’re talking time-wise, it’s obviously improved. Additionally, the systematic structure is what makes it easier to see the cutting.”

Sophomore Kole Parker doesn’t agree that the system has improved, however.

“It’s going to take at least 20 minutes to get your food, 20 minutes to eat it and you’re already done,” Parker said. “You have no time to talk to anybody. They used it to make people not cut anybody, but it just helps people cut in line. For example, for me, I just walked up to the front of the line.”

Alvarez argues that the appearance of the line is what turns the students away.

“The frustration of seeing the line makes people think it’s going to take longer, when in actuality, it’s much shorter.”

Alvarez, along with other administrators, decided that the old lunch program wasn’t functional due to all the cutting.

“It was actually getting to the point of probably 5 minutes until the bell rings and people weren’t even eating,” Alvarez said. “So we had to look for different systems.”

Biology instructor Jonathan Thompson, who helps direct the students to the lunch windows, approves of the new lunch system.

“It works much better,” Thompson said. “The kids get through lines quicker, it’s organized, and it works well.”