Parents Report Lake View High School Running Out of Food During Lunch

SAN ANGELO, TX— Reports of Lake View High School not being able to feed all its students are circulating online.

San Angelo LIVE! has received several messages from concerned parents about the school running out of food since it switched this school year to a closed campus for lunch.

Across town, Central will also transition to a closed campus, but it hasn't yet because of the lack of a sufficient cafeteria. There are plans for Central to have a new cafeteria built.

Parents who have students at Lake View received the following message regarding closed campuses:

“Good afternoon, Lake View High School families and staff,

To enhance student safety, we are working to fully secure our high school campuses –– Lake View and Central–– by transitioning them to closed campuses throughout the entire school day, including lunchtime.

This effort involved improvements such as fencing, additional seating, and expanded food service capacity in our cafeterias. With the campus completely fenced in, we are finalizing the necessary upgrades to the cafeteria at Lake View High School, allowing it to operate as a closed campus starting this school year.”

Some parents said that the Lake View cafeteria was not meant to serve the increased number of students, so they are running out of food. Also reported are long lines in the cafeteria and crowded seating.

Lake View has a cafeteria that can hold 520 people and an outdoor patio area that can seat 281 people according to the San Angelo Fire Marshal. This disputes online and social media claims that the cafeteria can only hold “100."

According to an email from SAISD communications director Shannon Schwartz, Lake View has 1,004 students and two lunch periods, “A Lunch” and “B Lunch”. Lake View has broken the student body into approximately 500 students at each lunch period.

Central’s student enrollment number is much higher than Lake View with 2,617 students and a cafeteria that can only currently hold 378. The new cafeteria is expected to hold 1,000 as noted by Parkhill, the architectural firm working with the district.

At Lake View, reports have stated that some students at the back of the line did not get any food and others only got mashed potatoes. Also, reports said students were sitting and eating lunch in the hallways, on stairs, and in the library.

According to a screenshot from a parent with a student at Lake View, the parent emailed the school district asking for any information regarding how many lunches the cafeteria can produce, to which Schwartz replied that both schools are equipped with commercial kitchens, both have the equipment to produce the quantities needed for meal service, and both campuses monitor participations carefully and adjust production needs daily.

San Angelo LIVE! has reached out to SAISD for more information.