MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

An increase in school meals was approved by the Coffee County School Board at their most recent meeting after

Director of School Nutrition Carlan Cotten presented a plan to the Board that would increase meals by fifty cents which would raise the price of breakfast to $1.75, Pre-K through 5th grade lunch to $2.75 and 6th to 12th grade lunch to $3.00.

School Nutrition’s budget, as Cotten explained, is self-sustaining and doesn’t take any money from the general fund, and after Nutrition’s Fund Balance will take a hit of $245,000 to balance the budget, the increase in meal price will make the budget self-sustaining again.

Cotten cited a minimum salary increase of nearly five dollars over the last three years, a steady increase in the amount paid for food and other items, a lack of state COVID relief money and Nutrition paying employees for inclement weather days as factors in suggesting a price increase.

The COVID relief money equaled out to $107,000 last year and Nutrition paid approximately $7,000 to employees for inclement weather days this year with no revenue for those days to cover the costs.

Cotten also noted that the price of students’ meals hasn’t increased in over 10 years.

Board member Robert Gilley moved to not approve the meal price increase and for the Board to transfer funds from the General Budget to the Nutrition Budget to cover the cost of student lunches and breakfast.

The motion received a second from Board member Jennifer Peacock Hodge.

Cotten referenced the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) which would allow the students to eat free breakfast and lunch, though she explained that food service would only get 70% back from the USDA to pay for that and Nutrition would have to pick up other 30% of the cost.

Deputy Director Kelvin Shores suggested that a big decision like that with “a lot of moving parts” would need to be looked at more in depth.

“I appreciate that it’s being discussed, but there needs to be some things, I’m afraid, that needs to be looked at a closer on other changes and other things it’s going to affect before moving forward,” he said. “It might need to come up again next month, but there needs to be some things looked at.”

“If we approve these tonight, it doesn’t mean that we can’t go in that direction. It just means that we’ve covered ourselves as far as making up for what hasn’t been done in 10 years,” added Cotten. “We needed to increase the prices to get to today’s inflation. I would advise passing these and then we can alter it later if we need to.”

Gilley explained that he personally wouldn’t vote for an increase of any kind and said it was “uncalled for.”

“If we have some kind of an issue because of the raises then that’s just a little bit of money coming off of the 141 (General) to the 143 (Nutrition) Budget to cover while we hope to pursue these other things,” he explained. “That’s where I’m at. If I need to withdraw the motion and just vote the way I need to vote, that’s fine.”

Gilley withdrew his motion and Board member Beth Yentsch made another to approve the meal price increase as is with a second by Board member Chris Koon.

Board member Scott Hansert questioned whether the Board could wait until some further clarification was obtained about the avenues that could be taken to provide free meals for students.

“We could, but I was just going to go ahead since we were under budget,” answered Cotten. “I wanted a solution to that.”

“We would have to go back and make another motion on this, but it was just an idea instead of raising it,” said Hansert after a moment of agreement with Gilley. “I’ve been involved with the Backpack program, and I know that fifty cents doesn’t seem like a whole lot but it’s a great big deal to some people.”

Cotten said that she also wanted to go ahead and approve the increase so that it would be available to put in the student agendas that go home to parents at the beginning of the school year.

“I’d rather put nothing than have it incorrect,” she said. “If we go ahead and put that in there and it ends up free, that’ll be fine, but if I don’t put the price increase, that might not be the best.”

Yentsch acknowledged that it would help Cotten’s peace of mind to go into the school year with the increase approved but asked that she let the Board know if she gets a lot of feedback from parents about not being able to afford meals so they could possibly supplement the Nutrition budget.

“We would need to know the reaction of who can still afford it and do you see a steady drop off in kids who are not eating because of the increase,” said Yentsch.

Cotton said that the proposed meal prices are on par with the rest of the state. She also noted that several nearby school systems provide free meals to all students, including Tullahoma City Schools.

The motion to increase student meal prices passed 5-3 with Gilley, Hansert and Hodge voting no.