Federal program may give all students at 3 city schools free breakfast and lunch

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, March 15, 2016, 9 p.m. — Every student who attends Bardstown Primary, Bardstown Elementary or Bardstown Middle School could receive free breakfast and lunch beginning in August if the district’s Community Eligibility Provision application is approved.

Greta Cecil, the district’s director of food and nutrition, explains the district’s eligibility in the CEP program.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a federal program that is part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that allows schools with high poverty rates to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students.

All students attending the schools will be eligible for free breakfast and lunch without a need to determine their eligibility as is the case with free or reduced-price lunch programs.

Greta Cecil, the district director of food and nutrition, told the Bardstown Board of Education the three schools qualify based on the number of students who receive services like SNAP or TANF, or are foster children.

The CEP program has grown in popularity across the state, she said. Out of the state’s 173 districts, 137 of them are participating in the program.

The savings are significant to parents with children enrolled in the district’s schools. One parent she talked to recently said the family would save $2,800 if the school provided free breakfast and lunch. And because the meals will be free, Cecil anticipates the number of students who eat breakfast will increase by 10 percent the first year.

Once the program is approved, letters will be sent to parents, and the program will be promoted at the schools’ open houses.

EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER DELIVERY TARGETS. The board received an update from Michelle Sharp, principal of the Bardstown Early Childhood Education Center, on the center’s work to improve the kindergarten readiness of its students.

Michelle Sharp, principal of the Early Childhood Learning Center, displays a lesson plan during her presentation Tuesday to the Bardstown Board of Education.

The center’s focus is preparing children to transition to kindergarten, and making sure they have specific, targeting skills. Teaching staff are identifying students who need more help and providing additional instruction.

As is done in the other district’s schools, the staff is using assessments data to drive instruction. The staff is also making an effort to improving consistency of the instruction from classroom to classroom, Sharp said.

She is using information from the Primary school to determine how prepared former center students were when they arrived in kindergarten. This work has allowed her staff to focus on activities to build skills that specifically improve kindergarten readiness.

Sharp said children who don’t get any kind of early childhood education enter kindergarten at a disadvantage because they often start school without the expected skills other students have.

CAPITAL FUNDS REQUEST. Superintendent Brent Holsclaw told the board the district qualifies to transfer some of its funding for capital projects to its general fund to pay for some of the the district’s expenses, which include property insurance, electricity, other supplies and materials, technology materials.

The district has requested the fund transfers consistently since 2011, Holsclaw said.

“It’s difficult to make ends meet, but if we didn’t have this band aid we would be having a tough time — like other districts across the state,” Holsclaw said.

Following Tuesday’s approval by the board, the application goes next to the Kentucky Department of Education for approval.

In other action, the board:

— heard a report from Holsclaw that 98 percent of the district’s 6,232 tax bills have been collected.

— heard from Holsclaw that the reduction in state SEEK funding won’t be as large as was anticipated in December. The district initially anticipated a reduction of about $40,000 for fiscal 2015-16. The district has been informed the reduction will be $15, 658 for the year.

— approved the site-based decision-making council staffing allocations for the district’s schools.

“This is the allocation you give them, but how they want to use those teachers is up to them,” Holsclaw said.

The staffing formula does not include principals, counselors and related arts positions, he said.

— received an update from J.W. Mattingly about the district’s technology plan;

— approved out-of-district contracts with other surrounding districts. The district already has a contract in place with the Nelson County Schools regarding out-of-district students.

-30-