SUMNER — The RSU 10 board voted Monday night to raise the price of school lunches by 25 cents and begin charging $1.50 for breakfast for high school students, effective the next school year.
They also decided by consensus not to pursue a federal School Improvement Grant for Mountain Valley Middle School.
“We have some of the lowest lunch prices in a 75-mile radius,” RSU 10 Nutrition Director Jeanne Lapointe said.
The new prices will help the breakfast and lunch programs to eventually get into the black. The new prices will go into effect at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.
Board members agreed to the recommendation of raising lunch prices from $1.95 to $2.20 for elementary students, and from $2.20 to to $2.45 for middle and high school students.
Breakfasts for high school students will cost $1.50. Breakfasts for elementary students will continue to be free.
The price for those eligible for reduced-price lunches will stay at 40 cents.
In addition, lunches that are delivered to students attending Parish of the Holy Savior School in Rumford and the Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico will also rise to the actual cost of meals. Those figures were not revealed at Monday’s meeting.
Superintendent Craig King suggested that the principals of the Buckfield, Dixfield and Rumford high schools conduct surveys of the kinds of foods students want for breakfast.
The district includes the towns of Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Peru, Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Byron, Mexico, Roxbury, Rumford and Hanover.
Following a presentation by Assistant Superintendent Gloria Jenkins, the board agreed not to pursue a School Improvement Grant that could be as much as $1.7 million. Mountain Valley Middle School was identified as one of the schools in the state that was eligible because of its low test scores.
King said the grant is likely not what is needed at MVMS.
“I’m not enthralled with this grant that would have all kinds of rules and regulations,” he said. Among them were the mandates to fire the principal and up to half of the staff.
“Meroby Elementary School once had low scores, and it was turned around without a grant,” he said.
Also on Monday, the board granted permission for the fifth-grade class at Rumford Elementary School to attend the University of Maine 4-H Camp and Learning Center at Bryant Pond on May 27 and 28. They also approved the eighth-grade class at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School to go on an overnight trip to Boston on May 29 and 30.
Transportation was also approved for Dirigo High School graduates to travel to Scarborough, then St. Joseph’s College in Standish for Project Graduation activities.
The next meeting of the Curriculum Committee was set for 5:30 p.m. May 14 at the Central Office. The Building and Grounds Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. April 29 at the Central Office.
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