This post was updated to include the personnel report
By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
Breakfast and lunch prices for students of Arkadelphia Public Schools will increase at the start of the 2024-25 school year.
The Arkadelphia Board of Education approved a 25-cent increase at a meeting on April 16, 2024, after hearing an activity update from Chartwells, the vendor that supplies food services for the school district. The board also renewed its contract with Chartwells.
While the new contract shows increases within Chartwell’s fees, school district officials say the price bump actually reflects an adjustment based on paid lunch equity calculations provided by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. More lunch increases are to be expected in upcoming school years, as the district’s goal is to be in line with the USDA-recommended $3.85 average, Superintendent Nikki Thomas said. At the beginning of the current school year the board approved a 5-cent increase to school meals.
Beginning in the upcoming fall semester the cost for all student breakfasts will be $2.15. Lunch for pre-K through 4th grade will be $2.75, and $2.95 for grades 5-12. The $2.75 for adult breakfasts will remain the same, but adult lunches will increase to $4.25.
Student lunch debt mounting
During the Covid pandemic, federal aid to districts nationwide allowed all students in public schools to eat for free. That federal program came to a halt prior to the 2022-23 school year. By that time, however, students had apparently grown accustomed to the habit of dining for free. The Arkadelphia school board at that time recognized that the district would likely be battling student lunch debt. By the end of that school year the student meal debt had climbed to $52,213.
The district is currently owed more than $35,000 from unpaid student meals.
Thomas said the district does not expect the meal cost increase to offset the lunch debt, which she said has been an issue for several years.
School districts are required by law to feed students regardless of whether they owe for unpaid cafeteria meals. While the district notifies parents when their child has an outstanding meal balance, it has not taken any legal action to date to collect what’s owed, and likely has no intentions of doing so. District officials are hopeful that a community partner will wipe the lunch debt clean.
Lunch debt has been a national issue since universal free lunches ended. More than 30 million students in the U.S. cannot afford their school meals, according to the Education Data Initiative. On average, those students owed $180.60 each year for a national total of $262 million in student lunch debt annually.
So, too, are the challenges school districts have in grappling with costs. The School Nutrition Association says high food and labor costs, ongoing procurement challenges and the end of pandemic-era financial assistance have “dramatically increased” financial pressures for school districts.
“School meal programs are expected to be self-sustaining, covering their expenses with federal reimbursements and cafeteria sales,” the SNA notes. However, a 2024 national survey indicates that 99.3% of school meal program directors reported challenges with increasing costs.
Personnel report
After conducting more business, the school board met in executive session, then reconvened in public to approve the following personnel recommendations:
Employment
Jazmine Johnson, elementary teacher, Peake
Robert Parsons, senior Army instructor (pending Army approval)
Jamie Rusher, special education teacher, Goza
Evan Spears, offensive lineman coach/head track coach, AHS
DeQuan Talley, junior high head boys basketball coach/assistant football coach, Goza
Deborah McMillan, dance coach, AHS
Jalisa Bowers, dance coach, Goza
Robert Cox, agriculture education teacher
Resignation
Samantha McCarroll, middle school teacher, Goza
Karli Ferguson, elementary teacher, Peake
Phillip Foster, senior Army instructor, AHS
Nicole Freeman, science teacher, AHS
Debbie Stephens, principal, Perritt
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