The summer feeding program will continue after the Elmore County Board of Education approved bids at last week’s meeting.
The only issue is the USDA is changing requirements for reimbursement for both breakfast and lunch meals. Many of the food options are required to be individually packaged especially for curbside pickup.
“It is requiring more retail type packaging that we don’t have access to through our current bids, nor our current distributors,” Elmore County Child Nutrition Program (CNP) director Cacye Davis said. “We had to work with the distributors to get these.”
To prevent duplicate feeding, the USDA will no longer allow curbside distribution and onsite feeding to happen at the same location.
For the curbside program, the system gets reimbursed $8.19 per child per day for a breakfast and lunch combination. Over a 10 day period the food costs are about $45. The remainder of the funding is used to cover labor and overhead. Any profits in the summer feeding program are shifted to other costs within CNP during the school year. The extra funds cover CNP costs the system would normally use general funds to cover.
The school board also handled other items on the meeting agenda. Superintendent Richard Dennis asked the board to approve a one-time $1,000 supplement for a softball coach at Redland Middle School.
Dennis explained schools sometimes raise funds for a coach such as through a booster program. These supplements do not appear on the supplement schedule approved by the board.
Just seven years ago Elmore County Schools was paying about $500,000 in supplements. That has grown to nearly $1 million.
“Over the last few years the supplement list has grown to include not only the coaches and band directors but fine arts, coordinator groups such as grade level or department chair with extra assignments,” Dennis said. “Those come from general funds.”
Dennis said the system has to save money in other places. With CNP making a profit in summer feeding, that allows funds from the general fund to be used in supplements.
Maxwell Air Force Base liaison Robert Richards informed the board that every school in the district is a Purple Star School, which means they have programs in place to help military students transition into the community.
Three parents and concerned citizens ask the board to reinstate Elmore County High School band director Zach Smith. Smith’s contract was not renewed by the board.
In other action the Elmore County Board of Education:
• Approved minutes of the March 19 meeting.
• Approved the March monthly financial report.
• Approved facility use agreements at Redland Middle School, Holtville High School and Millbrook Middle School.
• Approved a pressure washing bid in the amount of $19,600.
