Lunch Program... use it or lose it.

On March 19th I wrote about our child nutrition program (commonly called hot lunch). I explained how we are reimbursed at varying rates for lunches depending on the status of the student eating the lunch. I discussed the current cost per meal and some of the steps we have taken as a school district to reduce costs. I explained that we stand to lose $30,000 this year. I indicated that "the only way we will ever break even is to increase the participation rate to between 70-80% of all students." At the end of March only 47.8% of the first through twelfth grade students are eating on any given day.

Many patrons have expressed support for the continuance of the child nutrition program. Last evening at the Board meeting, several parents expressed the possibility of surveying parents and students to find out what we might do to encourage a higher percentage of student participation. At the suggestion of a trustee, we will reconvene our wellness committee and develop survey questions that we will make available online.

You can help us design a questionnaire that will provide us with valuable information.Would questions such as the following help you to provide us valuable information? Can you think of others?

• What do you like and not like about the program?
• What does your student like and not like?
• Are the meals appetizing in appearance?
• Are the meals a good value?
• Does the food taste good?
• Is it simply too expensive?
• Do we need greater variety?
• Should we close the campus to high school students and force them to remain on campus?
• Should we invite the general public to eat in our cafeteria when the students are present?
• Should elementary students have a choice of entree also?

Perhaps there is nothing we could do to encourage you or your student to utilize our lunch program. We would like to hear from you about that also.

The trustees would prefer to continue to operate the child nutrition program but it is becoming increasingly difficult as our enrollment declines and costs increase. It may come down to using it or losing it.

Please provide a comment to this post or send comments directly to Superintendent Neumann at dneumann@sd282.org. Thank you for your help.

ARRA and federal education funds

The federal stimulus legislation provides a number of pots of federal money that school districts may qualify to receive. The Genesee School District will not qualify for some of those funds because we have made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) as defined by the NCLB legislation (No Child Left Behind). We are also a high socio-economic school district as measured by our free and reduced lunch rate which currently stands at 14.3%. Some of the federal money is targeted to schools who are in school improvement for not making AYP and for school districts that serve primarily poorer students.

The District does stand to receive substantial increases in Title VI-B, Title I-A and Tittle II-D funds. Title VI-B funds are targeted for expenditures in school-age and preschool-age special education. There exists in federal law a requirement that a school maintain its general fund expenditure effort in order to receive the VI-B funds. Essentially this means the District cannot reduce its expenditure of M&O funds that are allocated for special education unless some very narrow and specific criteria occur. We expect to receive additional VI-B funds as part of the stimulus above and beyond what we normally receive in one year, more than double the amount. This is one time money with very specific expenditure guidelines. Most District expenditures of VI-B money are used for salaries and benefits of special education aides, supplies and professional development.

The ARRA also will provide us with additional Title I-A funds. Title I-A is compensatory education. We utilize the money to pay for salaries and benefits of a teacher and a paraprofessional who provide remedial services in reading, language and math. We also expect to receive Title II-D funds which are targeted to be expended in the area of education technology. These funds normally would be used to pay for hardware, software and/or professional development.

We are anxiously awaiting notification of estimated amounts we will receive in the next fiscal year, as well as guidance on how these funds are to be used. Existing federal law and the recently passed ARRA legislation provide that guidance but are both very complex statutes that require extra care to insure that the use of the funds remains transparent. The Idaho Legislature must also authorize the expenditure of these funds before any funding authority is released to the school districts. The Legislature has not provided this authority yet.

There is one exciting benefit for the VI-B funds which does not exist in the legislation for Title I-A or Title II-D. Up to 50% of the new VI-B funds from ARRA can offset current M&O maintenance of effort expenditures. For example, if we receive an additional $60,000 we could move $30,000 of current M&O special education expenditures to VI-B expenditures thereby freeing up $30,000 of M&O funds that can be expended on activities covered by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This will provide a small amount of help in balancing the FY2010 budget.