Committee approves $372,000 Methuen High dining room overhaul after staff present student survey results

Bob Friday, director of food services, presented plans to renovate the Methuen High dining room—replacing serving lines, furniture and lighting, and increasing seating capacity. He said the cost is $372,000 and the funds come from the food‑service budget, which the director described as a self‑funded enterprise subject to USDA reinvestment rules.

"These funds cannot be used for anything else except to improve the dining program," Friday said. He explained the project would be staged over February vacation (with April vacation as a fallback) and that existing high‑school furniture would be redistributed to grammar schools.

Committee members asked about capacity, accessibility for larger students, and whether the renovation meaningfully reduces the need to use the media center for overflow. Friday said the project increases capacity (about 20 more tables) but the district will still likely rely on additional spaces during high‑demand meal periods for the roughly 1,700 students served across meal shifts. Members confirmed the funds are in food‑service accounts, not the general school or city budget.

Friday also reviewed a student food survey done in November that collected 1,102 responses (about 29% participation). He described outreach tactics (QR codes, staffed tables, giveaways including iPads) and said early menu changes such as adding breakfast pizza were already implemented; he proposed running the survey annually and closing the feedback loop with student‑facing icons that show when menu items were changed because of survey input.

The committee moved the question and approved the dining room project by unanimous roll call.