BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES PURCHASING NEW SERVING LINES AT HIGH SCHOOL CAFETERIA
The Brenham High School cafeteria will be getting a facelift.
Chrane Foodservice Solutions Co-founder Duane
Guidry while looking over plans to redo the serving
line area at the Brenham High School cafeteria.
Chrane Foodservice Solutions helped write the
specifications that went out to project bidders.
On Thursday, the Brenham School Board agreed to use $1,054,222 in excess Child Nutrition Department funds to purchase three new serving lines.
Child Nutrition Director Kasandra Davis said assessing and improving student meal participation has been a priority of hers since joining Brenham ISD in 2021, as her budget is driven by the number of students who take part in meals. She said the existing serving lines are either original to the high school or have been “piecemealed” from other campuses, and this project is meant to modernize the food service area and provide more efficient service.
Prior to their vote, trustees walked through the cafeteria and met with officials from Chrane Foodservice Solutions, who showed the proposed layout and explained the equipment and configurations best suited for this project.
The Child Nutrition Department issued a request for proposals on February 5th and received bids from four vendors. The winning bid came from Mission Restaurant Supply, headquartered out of San Antonio.
The project will include demolishing the existing serving lines, removing walls and replacing them with aluminum gates, installing a new ceiling grid, extending quarry tile where walls are removed, capping unused plumbing, and running new electrical for the new serving lines.
Davis said she included the serving line project in her spending plan submitted in 2023 to the Texas Department of Agriculture, which requires said spending plan when a certain threshold of excess fund balance is hit. Child Nutrition Department funding cannot be transferred to the district’s general fund balance, as the department’s funding is tied to federal requirements.
Board Vice President Jared Krenek said he knows there have been times where students have not been able to get what they wanted to eat because the serving lines were too long, and feels this will do well to open up the cafeteria space. Trustee Kyle Hafner applauded Davis’ work in making sure more students are fed.
Davis said work on the serving lines should be done no later than the end of July, in time for the start of the next school year.
Later on during Thursday’s meeting, trustees approved a budget amendment to accommodate the Child Nutrition Department purchase and approved a local policy update. They also met in executive session before moving to extend all director, principal and assistant principal contracts for another year.
