Seven more Macon County schools will offer universal free lunch in the 2023-24 school year.
Cartoogechaye Elementary, South Macon Elementary, Iotla Valley Elementary, Mountain Valley Intermediate, Nantahala K-12 School, Macon Middle School and Macon Early College were the new schools that qualified, as announced at the June 26 Macon County Board of Education meeting. East Franklin and Union Academy were already providing free lunches.
“Currently we’ve had East Franklin and Union under the Community Eligibility Provision, where students at those schools eat breakfast and lunch for free without the need to fill out a free and reduced application,” said Macon County Schools Child Nutrition Director David Lightner. “I ran the data for this upcoming school year [and] all schools but Franklin High School and Highlands [School] qualified for this school year.”
Additionally, Lightner told the board that universal free breakfast at all schools will continue. And for those paying for lunch, the cost will remain the same in 2023-24.
Last summer, MCS raised lunch prices by an average of $1 across all grade levels - $3.75 for PreK-4th grade and $3.85 for 5th-12th grade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government mandated universal free breakfast and lunch. However, that mandate ended last year.
“I think this is one of the most positive things I have heard for our families and school children in a long time, this is terrific,” school board member Hilary Wilkes said. “Obviously we wish it was for all the schools, but excellent, excellent news.”
One of the reasons for the increase, Lightner said, was due to the state including more Medicaid-covered students.
Lightner said according to his calculations, 85.52% of the lunches at those schools would be reimbursed at the free rate according to eligibility requirements.
Lightner said he couldn’t include Franklin High and Highlands School but said those two schools might qualify in the future.
Wilkes asked about lowering or even undoing last year’s lunch rate hikes, but Lightner said they can’t. Lightner added that many school systems are raising lunch prices again this year.
The free lunch provisions and student meal pricing passed unanimously, with board member Melissa Evans absent from the meeting.
Despite nine schools qualifying, Lightner said it’s important for parents/guardians of students at those schools to still fill out the free lunch forms before the school year starts. Lightner said the more people fill out the free and reduced lunch participation forms, the more reimbursements the county gets to cover those costs. Lightner said if there’s no increase in participation, the county would be on the hook for roughly $88,000. The break-even participation increase number is 5%, Lightner said.
Wilkes said she knows of families who scaled back their kids’ eating at school because of that price hike last year, so she feels many families will fill out those forms and would be surprised if participation doesn’t increase.
FHS Principal Mickey Noe asked about the deadline for the free lunch forms, to which Lightner replied that there’s a 30-day grace period from the start of school. Noe said some families would think since they had free lunch the year before, they don’t need to fill out forms again this year. Students who had free lunch the previous year start the next school year on free lunch automatically for at least those 30 days.
Board member Stephanie Laseter said it’s important to make sure parents/guardians understand the importance of filling out the free lunch forms, especially since parents/guardians will be filling out many forms at the start of a new school year.
On the other side of the financial coin, Lightner said this would reduce the negative lunch balances, which for 2022-23 ended up at $16,000.
Lightner said students who have filled out free lunch applications would qualify for reduced fees for other extracurricular activities, testing and other programs.
“It’s always been a concern of all boards I’ve served on in terms of kids who this is their only source of nutrition,” board chair Jim Breedlove said. “We talk about what is best for our students.”
“Every kid deserves to eat,” retiring MCS Superintendent Chris Baldwin said to punctuate the discussion.
Building updates
During Monday’s packed-agenda meeting, the board approved a resolution that MCS will consolidate Union Academy into the new Franklin High building, contingent on that building project happening. Baldwin said this would help the county’s application for the up to $60 million Needs-Based Public School Fund grant that would offset most of the construction costs, as consolidation is one of the grading criteria. Emily Kite of LS3P, the architectural firm for the project, said via a webcast that they’ve been working with FHS on the interior designs. After consolidation, the current Union building would be converted into a Pre-K school.
MCS only received one bid for the Highlands Middle School project, which came in at $1,184,185 from Beverly-Grant, Inc. of Asheville, according to Baldwin. The county has, to date, received $634,000 of the anticipated $800,000 in N.C. Repair and Renovation funds to pay for the project, Baldwin said, but it’s not sure whether the county will get all $800k. That currently puts the project over budget by $549,895. Baldwin said the school board needs to ask Macon County government to offset the difference. Kite said the high bid was because Highlands is remote for construction companies who do school work. Kite estimated that costs would go up 1% each month if MCS doesn’t start the project.
During Monday’s meeting, the board voted to approve the East Franklin Elementary faculty and student handbook revisions and the Iotla Valley Elementary student handbook revisions.
The board will hold a special called meeting for a budget work session on Monday, July 24, starting at 2 p.m. at the MCS administration offices to go over its 2023-24 budget allocations from the state and county after the 2023-25 state biennium budget is [likely] approved.
The regularly scheduled July meeting will take place the same day at 6 p.m.