Restaurants open up all the time, but not necessarily on a high school campus. For students at North Side High School in Fort Worth, that's what they'll soon have with the addition of several restaurant quality kitchens on campus.
The district is set to add a 48,000-plus square foot building to the campus which will house two full production kitchens, two demonstration kitchens, four culinary classrooms, a dining hall and 17 other classrooms and a writing lab.
"And for the kids, not just now but for the future for them to have a state of the art kitchen, for them to learn what its really like to be in a restaurant, so that's what we're looking forward to," said Kim Church, a teacher at North Side for the last 32 years in the culinary arts program.
The $11.29 million project, which officials broke ground on Thursday, was not originally apart of the 2007 bond program.
"We're very fortunate that our bond program went well for the first four years," said Walter Dansby, superintendent of Fort Worth ISD. "So we were able to extend it another year, for a fifth year, moving some $90 million forward to do continuing renovations throughout the district, this is one part of it."
Other parts include track renovations at high schools and a band hall at Southwest High School. Dansby says the most important part of the building and program is that it will benefit students in the long run.
"It's going to prepare our kids and give those kids life skills that's going to lead to a well-paying job," he said.
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Senior Javier Arguelles won't see the new culinary arts facility as a student, but he's excited about what the program has already given him.
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a chef at first," Arguelles said. "But taking the class I know I'm going to be a chef, that's what I want to do."
And that's what the district hopes the new building will do for all students, prepare them for life.
