Reset, Renew, and Refocus: A Cafeteria Transformation

Douglas Burak • Cahn Fellow 2023

Cigarroa Elementary prides itself on building and sustaining a strong culture while equipping students with the tools needed to be successful in Middle School. After reviewing referral data from the previous year and beginning of the current year, we were falling short of this vision.

Our project focused on identifying the root cause of why 80% of all referrals for our 5th and 6th grade students were coming from interactions in the cafeteria. Once root causes were identified, we sought to build a comprehensive plan to address the variables that were driving these outcomes.

By resetting expectations, making personnel changes, upgrading the physical environment and resetting systems and procedures, we saw a sharp decline in student referrals, tremendous growth on student surveys and improvement on academic performance for the 5th and 6th grade students.