The South Callaway Board of Education voted to raise meal prices in the district Wednesday in order to follow a Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education mandate and continue to receive money from state and federal grants to pay for free and reduced-price meals.
The increases include a 10-cent raise for the price of breakfast to $1.45, a 15-cent raise for the price of kindergarten through fifth grade lunches to a price of $2.20, and a 10-cent raise to the price of sixth through 12th grade lunches to $2.45.
Superintendent Kevin Hillman said the raise in prices is not because the district needs more funding to cover meals but because a state audit for food service indicated too low of a price was being charged compared to what was being reimbursed by the state and federal governments for free and reduced-price meals.
"I did not plan on raising our prices this year," Hillman said. "We're mandated to raise (the prices) at least 10 cents."
The raise in prices is the minimum the school could do to continue receiving the grant funding for free and reduced-price meals, he added.
Hillman said South Callaway plans to draft a letter to put on the district's website explaining it is not "passing the buck" and to help residents to understand the process.
The district is still short of the guidelines the state recommends for meal prices, Hillman said, adding he did not want a large increase immediately and hopes to keep prices "extremely low for kids and our parents."
He said the school hopes to not have to raise prices for the same reason next year, but they will have to go through the same process again.
The board also heard a proposal to switch how it acknowledges successful students from stressing class ranking to a cum laude honors system.
High school Principal Heather Helsel said because each graduating class from South Callaway is only around 60-70 students, recognizing the top 10 percent of students results in only a handful being acknowledged. Following class ranking can also lead to over-competitiveness and affect what classes a student chooses to take, Helsel added.
In its current state, the proposed system would use a student's cumulative GPA, ACT score and attendance to rank them as summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude. However, Helsel said the proposal was in its early stages and will be discussed with students and the community to determine what guidelines are used.
The proposal also included removing the valedictorian and salutatorian of each class as the commencement speakers and instead would have the speakers chosen through a faculty or student committee process with submitted drafts and interviews.
If accepted, the proposed start for the new system is with the graduating class of 2020, however it could change.
Hillman said the focus going forward is to make sure no student would be hurt by the change and that it leads to better recognition of quality students.