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Schools to see changes in coming year
34 OUR REGION
MUHLENBERG
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Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022
Schools to see changes in coming year
BY KARAH WILSON
MESSENGER-INQUIRER
Muhlenberg County Public Schools has been making some adjustments in the district amid the 2022-23 academic year.
New MCPS superintendent Contessa Orr started her year on July 1, and she swiftly began making plans and coming up with ideas for the new school year.
“I want to start by focusing on economic development and helping students decide what they might want to do after graduation,” she said. “I want us to help make them successful in taking those pathways and maybe even bring them back to the county.”
Orr said she wants to begin looking at what is needed to help students foster different pathways and how to expose them to as many career and community opportunities before they leave high school.
“My main focus is always to do what’s best for the kids,” she said. “So any time I approach a decision or change, it’s always going to be with that focus.”
Additional improvements are coming to Muhlenberg County High School, including a new cafeteria on the horizon.
Jo Cooper, food service director for MCPS, said a new Mustang Cafe is in the works to better accommodate the amount the students the school has. “It will be like a college cafe with different stations such as grab-n-go and a hot food line,” she said. For the fall semester and possibly most of the spring semester, breakfast and lunch will be prepared off-site and brought over in a truck. The meals will be served in a multipurpose room until completion.
“The bus garage has been phenomenal, and we couldn’t do it without them or the maintenance and technical departments,” Cooper said.
Cooper said à la carte options will be limited during the time of renovations.
MCPS is hoping to have the cafeteria completed sometime between January and March of 2023. Work on the cafeteria began in February.
“The previous kitchen was opened first in 1990, and we are going to make it more updated to be able to offer more choices,” Cooper said. “It is going to be great, and the kids will love it.”
“I want to start by focusing on economic development and helping students decide what they might want to do after graduation.” — Contessa Orr, MCPS superintendent
