PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Shoreham-Wading River school board members and superintendent  Steven Cohen at last week’s meeting.

The Shoreham-Wading River school board said it would be “beyond impossible” to put a proposition on the May ballot to build a kitchen in each district school, citing the amount of time it would take to research and prepare a plan at their meeting last Thursday night.

The proposition was suggested by district residents at the previous board meeting as a way to help the district care for its growing student population. But district superintendent Steven Cohen said by the time the district finished preparing a proposition for district residents, it would be too late for the May vote.

“It’s an unrealistic time frame,” he said.

School officials said the district would need to speak to architects to draft up plans for the new kitchens, as well as discuss the logistics of scheduling lunch periods and determine how many students the kitchens should feed before putting the petition up for a district vote.The board would also have to make sure the kitchens were up to state regulations.

But the board said they would look into the idea, and would set up a committee with the residents who drafted the petition to make them aware of the different steps that must be taken before the proposition goes for a vote.

“I think it’s something the board needs to look at and get a lot more information on,” said school board president William McGrath.

Mr. McGrath and school board member Robert Rose agreed to be a part of the committee, which will report its findings back to the Space and Facilities Committee.

psquire@timesreview.com