When Southwest students began their second term on Wednesday, Oct. 18, they entered the lunchroom to discover 19 new tables. Instead of being surrounded by chairs, the new tables had benches attached to them.

“I think they might take up a lot more space than regular tables,” junior Grace Hansen said. “But I know a lot of other schools have them, so we’re following in their footsteps.”

Principal Mr. John Matzen made the decision to get new tables after the old chairs in the lunchroom were discontinued.

“We ran into an issue where we were unable to order the type of chairs at our tables that stack,” Matzen said. “Our custodial staff has shared for a long time that the stacking of chairs is time-consuming. One option for us was to have built-in benches so the tear-down would be a lot quicker.”

In the future, Matzen plans to place more of the new style of tables into the cafeteria.

“The hope is to continue to add those so eventually the entire lunchroom is filled, which will save our custodians a great deal of time,” Matzen said.