SVES Cafetorium officially opens

After a year since its groundbreaking, the San Vicente Elementary School Cafetorium finally opened to serve the school and the San Vicente community.

SVES principal James Rayphand welcomed guests during yesterday’s ribbon cutting ceremony for the facility, which is a cafeteria and an auditorium rolled into one.

Rayphand said the contractor turned over the Cafetorium to them this week. “But there’s no exact date yet as to when we will open this for the students,” he said, adding that chairs and other furniture would still have to be delivered.

He added that a state-of-the-art audio system would soon be installed at the new Cafetorium.

The multi-purpose building can host large meetings of up to 500 persons.

Education Commissioner David M. Borja, Board of Education officers and members Roman C. Benavente, Dino Jones, Marja Lee Taitano, Lucy Blanco-Maratita and Herman T. Guerrero trooped to the school during a recess in their board meeting yesterday morning to attend the opening ceremony.

PSS Federal Program advisor Tim Thornburgh earlier said that all of San Vicente would benefit from the 5,600-square-foot cafeteria and auditorium.

Rayphand seconded this when he told the media yesterday that his school is willing to collaborate with the San Vicente community on the use of the building.

The Cafetorium, he said, would serve a function hall for school plays and other programs, as well as community programs by the San Vicente community. It will also function as a cafeteria where hot lunches will be served to its students.

Thornburgh said the old cafeteria would be converted into another classroom since its size could contain one class.

The Board of Education and Public School System led the groundbreaking ceremony for the project in December 2005.

The project was awarded to AIC Marianas. It used the Kagman Elementary School Cafeteria/Multi-Purpose Building design to construct the project.

The Cafetorium is a federally funded project that was awarded to PSS in November 2004. The project cost was estimated to be a little over $935,000. Official construction inside the SVES compound started on Jan. 3 this year.

The new cafeteria has a central air-conditioning, an elevated stage office, bathrooms, electrical room, and lots of storage areas. It will soon have a dining area of 3,500 square feet, a scullery, food preparation and warming area.

PSS officials noted that this would most probably be the very last construction project at SVES as there is no other space for buildings unless the baseball field is sacrificed for future classroom expansion.

Sen. Pete Reyes and Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero also graced yesterday’s ribbon cutting ceremony. Rev. Charlie Borja led the invocation while the SVES Student Council officers and members rendered a presentation during the event.