Lunch costs rising in District 204
The Indian Prairie Unit District 204 school board reluctantly agreed to raise student meal costs by 10 cents, even though officials say they’ve been unhappy with the inconsistent quality of food sold to students.
“How can we ask our consumers to pay more if they’re not happy with the quality?” board member Christine Vickers asked.
The board recently put its food service provider, Chartwells, on notice that quality needs to improve dramatically over the next six months or the district plans to find a new company.
But the district needed to increase meal prices to break even on the cost of preparing meals and to comply with a new federal requirement that paid lunches can’t be subsidized with federal money. Federal funds pay for part or all of the costs of meals for impoverished students.
District 204 lunch prices haven’t been raised in more than seven years and actually dropped at some point during that time when milk was added to lunches without increasing the cost to students.
“If we just look at that seven-year time frame, we haven’t increased the price, yet at the same time, the inflation rate — the CPI rate — for food using the national measure has gone up over 20 percent,” said Dave Holm, assistant superintendent of business and finance.
Board President Curt Bradshaw said he was torn on the price increase. “In an economy like this, any price increase is not something you want to do,” he said.
But because the district would have to make up the cost difference with operating funds if it sold meals at a loss, Bradshaw said prices should be increased.
The new prices are $2.35 for an elementary school lunch, $2.40 for middle and high school lunches, $1.60 for breakfast and 85 cents for a snack. To further fulfill the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the district will have to raise the cost by about another 20 cents over the next two years.
In other cost-saving measures, the district will increase preschool tuition and drop an expected nine bus routes by having students who drive to school waive bus riding privileges.
Monthly preschool tuition will increase by $10 a month to $205 for its three-day program and $235 for its four-day program, still keeping the cost in the bottom half of what area preschools charge.
The district anticipates it will save about $300,000 by eliminating the bus routes. Student drivers will be given five bus passes to use when needed through the year and can petition to go back to riding the bus.
“I think that was the scariest part for most people. What if there is that one day the car doesn’t work?” Bradshaw said. “It gives a little bit of a safety net. People won’t have that anxiety of the ‘what if.’”
Indian Prairie covers portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield.