I've actually been "working" on this recipe for years. Started with the "Gannie" hand-written version that's been floating around the Internet for the last 10-15 years, and then moved on the the 1988 USDA publication as shown in this post.

It's all wrong, somehow. That's kind of paradoxical because school lunch has to conform to government standards, so you'd think the USDA publication is the gold copy. But if you make this and scale it, it's a solid square for sure, but nothing like school lunch pizza.

It is true that most schools were not making these in-house, they came frozen in a box from a supplier. But the thing that I don't understand is, government food contractors would have had to conform to the USDA-specified ingredients, so why does it taste like a completely different pizza?

But you know what actually slaps? The pourable pizza dough recipe within the same publication. I use that all the time (once a week) and it is indeed very similar to school lunch pizza, which as you might remember is a soft and chewy dough, with some sweetness provided by the sugar and powdered milk.

So I'd recommend using the pourable method, par-baked on parchment, and then just do your own thing with the sauce, cheese, and toppings. For a half sheet I cut it into 8 pieces which is slightly larger than the school portions. Best part, you can knock it out start to finish in 50 minutes. Reheats very well in the air fryer, just 5 minutes at 350 and it's as good as new.