Here’s a contentious issue that actually united the fractious Muscogee County School Board, albeit briefly.
During their monthly meeting Monday night, the nine board members unanimously but reluctantly approved Muscogee County School District Superintendent David Lewis’ recommendation to raise lunch prices by 10 cents for the 2017-18 school year. So the price for lunch will increase from $2.25 to $2.35 at elementary schools and from $2.50 to $2.60 at middle schools and high schools.
MCSD’s lunch prices in the 2013-14 school year were $2 at elementary schools and $2.25 at middle schools and high schools.
District 7 representative Cathy Williams said she considered voting against the recommendation until she heard the extenuating circumstances.
“It’s not completely our decision,” Williams said. “We do get pressure from the state, federal entities that tell us that we’re not charging enough.”
District 8 representative Frank Myers said, “If you don’t have 10 cents, 10 cents means a lot. I’ve had money in my life, and I’ve not had money in my life. It’s a lot more fun if you have money. … I think the policy is bad, and for that reason I’m going to vote no.”
MCSD school nutrition director Susan Schlader clarified that it’s the federal government, under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, requiring school districts to raise lunch prices a maximum of 10 cents each year to eventually meet the federal reimbursement rate, which is $3.24 per meal in fiscal year 2017.
“I do not like it,” Schlader said. “None of us in the state of Georgia likes it. We have been fighting it ever since it went into effect.”
Then-President Barack Obama signed the law in December 2010, followed by rules implementation into 2014.
“When we go to the mandatory state meetings, we talk about this,” Schlader said. “We’re trying our best to get the federal government to drop this requirement. … All it is doing is penalizing those parents that have children that are paying. It is hurting our participation, which goes with some other funding that we get.”
Vice chairwoman Kia Chambers, the nine-member board’s lone countywide representative, noted some school districts offer free lunches to all students, based on qualifying for the Community Eligibility Provision.
CEP schools and districts have at least 40 percent of their students qualifying for free lunches. Chambers asked Schlader what MCSD must do to qualify for CEP as a district.
“I would love for us to go 100 percent,” Schlader said. “If you look around the state of Georgia, more and more districts are going 100 percent. … I have tried to work it every way I can possibly work it.”
Schlader said schools serving students from families with incomes higher than the Muscogee average, such as Columbus High School, Clubview Elementary, Eagle Ridge Academy and Northside High School, “pull our percentages down below the threshold, and it’s impossible for us to meet the qualifications.”
District 6 representative Mark Cantrell asked Schlader what would happen if the board voted against raising the lunch prices.
“It doesn’t make any difference,” Schlader replied. “It was a federal law.”
Board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1 interjected, “This vote is asking us to be in compliance with the federal law. It’s not giving us a choice.”
Schlader added, “It’s a way for us to get the information out, even to the point of saying how much we disapprove of this. There might be some of our congressmen and senators listening that might take it back and try to do something about it.”
All of which prompted Myers to declare, “Given Ms. Schlader’s explanation, I’ve changed my position. … I will vote yes because you’re telling me it’s necessary.”
He did – and the eight other board members joined him.
Mark Rice: 706-576-6272, @markricele