By CARLOS GODOY

The new option for a salad bar in Daniel Pearl Magnet High School’s (DPMHS) cafeteria has been put on hold.

In December, it was announced that at the start of the spring semester in January, a salad bar would be in place. It included a variety of fresher and healthier selections. However, going green might not be taking place for quite some time.

“Food services plus maintenance and operation are looking for student seating arrangements because the salad bar will take up space,” Principal Deb Smith said. “Major adjustments are needed to fix the structure of the cafeteria.”

An option to increase sales is to implement Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC), a program most common in elementary and middle schools. With BIC, students in their first period are sent to the cafeteria to pick up a case of meals and bring it to their classroom. Then they are distributed to each student so they eat during that time. The problem is fitting it into the bell schedule.

“I don’t even know how to extend the period 10 minutes, unless we extend the school day, but no one really wants that,” Smith said.

One way to fix this problem is restructuring the bell schedule. With the six-period bell schedule next school year, time can be adjusted. However, if the district decides to implement BIC this school year then it will be difficult.

“BIC is being phased into the schedule by the district. The way they choose which schools get and in what order is determined by how many students are on the free lunch program,” Smith said. “We have around 55 percent.”

Although no salad bar will be added yet, the cafeteria will be serving packaged salads to see what salads students like. Cafeteria manager Kathy Mrasz declined to be interviewed.