After many years the high school’s cafeteria and kitchen is getting a long-due renovation over the summer and during the coming school year. Along with the redesign comes a change in staff as cafeteria manager Joan Bayes said goodbye to her job of 35 years.
“I’m retiring in May,” Bayes said. “Actually the timing is just perfect. Now there is an opportunity for someone else to see what has been going on, and they’ll have the opportunity to develop a whole new five-line menu.”
Taking her position will be HPMS cafeteria manager Brenda Vardell, who will start work at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.
“A lot of parents have asked me over the years to come over because I started that light plate menu and just different things. And since Joan is retiring, I just thought it would be a good change for me,” Vardell said.
According to Bayes, Vardell’s experience at the middle school and her work on the menu there makes her a good successor for the high school position.
“Brenda is such a blessing for the PTA and for the students because of course she’s somebody that worked with the students at the middle school and has worked with the PTA and understands the whole business side of food service,” Bayes said.
Vardell is also on the design committee for the cafeteria remodeling and has personally proposed some changes herself.
“We’re gonna add an additional serving line, the market area is going to come back inside the serving line kind of like the Raider Express over at the middle school. I am bringing over a salad bar and a baked potato and soup bar,” Vardell said.
Principal Dr. Hunt acknowledged that updates to the kitchen facilities have been under consideration for some time and are now moving forward as part of the school’s broader renovation plans.
“It’s been twenty-plus years since there’s been any sort of upgrade in that area. And just like a home, after twenty-thirty years, most people are like ‘I need to upgrade my kitchen.’ You know?” Hunt said.
However, due to the scope of the ongoing renovations, establishing a definitive timeline for the project remains challenging.
“There’s going to be some phases, right? We’re doing a lot of touch up and flooring work in the building over the summer so we can come back in August and we’ll notice quite a few improvements. So I would suspect that maybe mid to late fall they start, and then they’ll hopefully have it done maybe when we come back after spring break,” Hunt said.
Vardell is looking forward to working in the high school cafeteria, and improving the lunchtime experience for students.
“I love a challenge. So I’m looking forward to creating new menus and coming up with different things. It’s gonna be mainly the food, but the construction is gonna be great.”
The upcoming changes are expected to bring meaningful improvements to the cafeteria experience for students starting next year.
“[The renovations] give us the capacity to have different, better food, and so it’ll just generally improve our kitchen. The food will be better and the whole flow and system of how you go in, get your food and check out will be improved,” Hunt said.
Though many changes are approaching, what will be staying in the cafeteria is the parent’s involvement.
“That’s the one thing that I’ve always really enjoyed and know that is a very visible service that the students can see. So that’s the exciting part is to just keep that tradition going on,” Bayes said.
