Times Newsroom Blog

A change in federal statute means that the price for a lunch in Crookston’s public schools will be going up 10 cents a year for the next three years. Food Services Director Ann Riedlinger told the Crookston School Board on Monday that the federal government changed the rules because there’s a thinking that school districts are essentially subsidizing their regular food program with the financial break they receive from their free and reduced meal program.

                Presently, Riedlinger said, the school district gets $2.85 back for ever free and reduced meal served, and 38 cents back from each regular meal served. Fifty-eight percent of students pay full price for meals, she explained, and 67 percent of those eat school meals every day.

                In order to comply with the new rule, Riedlinger said the price of a regular lunch in the schools will have to increase to $2.46. But the government is also capping the amount a district can increase the price at a time to 10 cents, which, she said, means it’ll take three years to get to $2.46 for a lunch. As for Crookston’s breakfast price, she said the district is already compliant with its $1.10 price for a student breakfast and $1.35 for a faculty/staff breakfast. The minimum price required by the federal government for a breakfast is 95 cents, Riedlinger said.

                “We don’t have to do this if we have some other way of getting revenue, but we don’t have any other way than this, so we need to comply,” she told the board. Riedlinger added that she’s not counting on any profits in the meal program being spurred by the series of increases, given that she’s been told that both food and non-food costs will be going up an estimated 5 percent in the coming year.

                Then there’s the Farm2School program, which seeks to give kids healthier opportunities that are grown or produced in a more local fashion. The district is a participant, and Riedlinger said the program adds to labor expenses and equipment expenses, mostly from dealing with fresh produce. If recommendations from the National Institutes of Medicine ever become reality, Riedlinger said costs will really spike.

                “They want a cup of veggies or fruit a day, or a certain number of greens a day or legumes per week,” she said. “That’s going to add to costs if it happens.”

Meeting notes

·         The board accepted the retirement letter from Carol Hunt, the literacy coordinator who is currently funded by federal stimulus dollars that are going away. Hunt spent 32 years in the district, the vast majority of them as a teacher.

·         Dan Erdmann and Art Nash each spoke during the open forum portion of the meeting to stress the importance of keeping the swimming pool open, and to also thank the board for, apparently, leaning toward not closing the pool as part of the next round of budget reductions.

·         At the suggestion of Superintendent Wayne Gilman, the board will hold a Finance Committee/board working session Friday morning to listen to potential operating levy referendum strategies put together by Gilman and Business Manager Laura Lyczewski. If the board can come to some kind of consensus, Gilman didn’t rule out adopting a resolution at their next meeting on April 4 that sets forth an operating levy plan, including an amount district voters would be asked to support. “I’m getting an indication from some people that they’d like to maybe start earlier than last year on this,” Gilman said.