Elementary School Lunch Prices to Drop

In a world where budgets are tightening and prices are rising, elementary school parents got some good news on Tuesday night as the Wakefield School Committee voted to lower the price of lunch from $2.60 to $2.50.

The committee approved the price change by a vote of 5-1 following a proposal by business administrator Michael Connelly, who recommended the price drop.

Kevin Piskadlo, the sole member of the committee to vote against the price change, did so because he was concerned about the lack of detail in the proposal about the cost to prepare a lunch. He favored delaying the vote until such data could be produced.

“I’m going to choose not to vote for this, not because I’m against the 10 cents, I just think we need to be really intentional about the decisions we make and that has to be based on data,” Piskadlo said. “I’m uncomfortable not knowing how much the cost of a lunch is before we decide how much lunch should be, and not knowing if it has to be decided tonight, if that’s something that has to be done.”

Connelly faced questions from many of the committee members about the rationale behind the price change, and if it would be profitable. Connelly defended the proposal, saying that he had no indication that the lower price would result in losses for the schools.

“It’s a decrease that wouldn’t be significant enough that it would have an impact on profitability and at the very least it might spur an increase in participation at the elementary level,” Connelly said.

Lisa Butler, chairman of the School Committee, also pointed out that the elementary school cafeterias frequently struggled with long lines due to the cashiers having to make change for all the students. With a more even price like $2.50, that process would become much smoother.

Connelly agreed that shifting to an even price would move Wakefield more in line with the lunch prices of other communities, where you would only find even prices like $2.50 or $2.75, and would also fall within the recommendations given by the USDA and the school’s new lunch director.

Committee member Anthony Guardia brought up another point, saying that in the past, some of the miscalculations with budgeting for food didn’t have to do with cost breakdowns, but rather, the projections for how many students would actually buy lunch.

“Have you projected how many students are going to buy lunch?” Guardia asked. “Have you made your food budget, and does $2.50 cover that projection?”

Connelly responded by pointing out that the projection for the amount of students who will buy lunch, which is 30 percent of the students, was actually reached after an initial higher estimate turned out to be inaccurate, and so an adjustment was made. As far as this coming year is concerned, Connelly pointed out that the new lunch director would need some time to assess the town before a more updated projection could be made, so that demanding a number now from him would be somewhat unreasonable.

The committee was satisfied and ultimately voted in favor of the proposal, with the exception of Piskadlo, who favored a delay.

The lunch prices for the middle school and high school will remain at their current prices of $2.75, the price of milk will remain 50 cents and the price of a school breakfast will remain $1.25.