Architect To Visit Rison for Cafeteria Plan

RISON - Little Rock architect Steve Elliott is expected to visit the Rison School campus this week to develop a new plan to expand the school cafeteria. Cleveland County Superintendent Jerrod Williams discussed the upcoming visit in an interview Tuesday following the Cleveland County School Board’s regular monthly meeting Monday night. Williams presented the board with a revised plan to expand the cafeteria during its July meeting.He said the new plan should cut some of the construction costs. Expanding the school cafeteria has been an ongoing issue for the district over the past few years since it is not large enough to accommodate at all the students at a reasonable time for lunch. In May, the state announced it had awarded the Cleveland County School District “partnership funding” to help pay for the cafeteria expansion. Under the partnership program, the state pays about 65 percent of the cost for a project in the Cleveland County School District. Originally, the plan was to add about 2,000 square feet of seating space as well as a third serving line by building wings on two sides of the existing cafeteria. The projected cost for that asddition was between $900,000 and $1 million. Last month, Williams proposed putting the entire expansion on one side of the building rather than two. His plans are to build the addition along the side of the cafeteria facing the parking lot, noting that it would take up some of the parking space there. In addition, he suggested converting an existing office on that side of the building into the third serving line.  After checking with some construction managers, Williams said it should significantly reduce the cost since all the construction would be taking place on one side of the building rather than two. The board encouraged Williams to move forward with his idea, and this week’s visit will be part of that process. He said Elliott wi...