BELLE — Maries County families who are concerned about the expiration of a free lunch program for elementary and middle school students paid for through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) grant that expired at the end of the 2022-23 school year have a slight reprieve as the board of education voted on July 25 to continue providing free breakfast for the 2023-24 school year.

Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham addressed the board of education in the Bland cafeteria.

“I have been thinking quite a bit about the financial impact that losing the CEP was going to have on our kiddos and our families,” Basham began. “I would like for the district to cover the cost of all student breakfast for this first 2023-24 school year. It would at least allow one free meal for our families. We did end up with about a $76.000 positive balance in our food nutrition and DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) would like that to be a zero balance, to not have that as a profit. So that would help eliminate that profit and use it in a way I think is good for our community.”

Board Director Ashley Marquart-Harris asked for confirmation that the $76,000 would not cover the entire cost of the meals. Basham confirmed she was correct.

“Where will the remainder come from?” Marquart-Harris asked.

“It will come out of our general revenue,” Basham said. “We don’t know yet how much it is going to cost us because we don’t know how many kids qualify for free or reduced lunch. We would only pay for those who are not free or reduced and we don’t have any idea, really, what that number is because for the past five years they haven’t had to fill out free and reduced lunch forms because every meal was free. This last year was about $120,000 for breakfast.”

Marquart-Harris said she was for anything that would help the families in the district.

“This is going to be a big change for many of people,” Marquart-Harris said.

Basham agreed.

“It really is and I just want to make sure our kids are eating,” Basham said.

Joey Butler II said he is especially sympathetic to families with two or three students because it is an extra $15-$20 a week.

“We want every one to fill out a free and reduced lunch application, even if they don’t think they will qualify,” Basham said. “It will help us figure out how many kids will qualify. Because we ended this past fiscal year with a little higher balance than we normally do, it felt like the right time to put some of that money back into the pockets of our families.”

Students will still receive free snacks.

“We really want to be able to qualify for that CEP grant again and the only way to do that is to get that percentage of students who qualify higher,” Basham said. “The district did not meet the eligibility criteria for the upcoming school year as we do not have 40 percent of our students who are direct certified for food assistance.”

The board approved providing free breakfast to all students with a 6-0 vote.

Basham told the board that the cost of breakfast per meal will be about $1.20 per student. Last year the district spent about $120,000 on student breakfast, which includes the cost of paid breakfast at the high school level.

“Families would still have to pay for lunch,” Basham said. “This will reduce the impact on our district families,” Basham said.

Basham said the $76,000 balance may be used towards the $120,000 breakfast bill.

In other news, the board of education approved to set a $6,260.57 student tuition rate.

“Tuition rate for 2021, 2022, and 2023 was set at $6,260.57,” Basham said. “We have not had any students pay tuition to attend in previous years.”

The rate was set with a 6-0 vote.

The board approved the following coordinators with a 6-0 vote, including Vanessa Feeler as homeless coordinator, Amanda Seaver as migrant coordinator, and Garrett Haslag as foster coordinator.

The board approved 6-0 to set the district’s tax rate hearing at 6:55 p.m. on Aug. 29 prior to the regular board meeting.

Haevener’s in Owensville was awarded the bid for the district’s pest control bid, not to exceed $6,624 annually with a 6-0 vote.

Lock’s Mill was awarded the district’s propane contract at $1.59 a gallon with a 6-0 vote.