The Juneau School District Board of Education is fast tracking a move to restore universal free breakfast for K-12 students.
This comes after lawmakers overrode an education funding veto and restored more than $1.5 million to the district. The Alaska State Legislature overrode the governor’s veto of more than $50 million in state education funding earlier this month.
The board typically considers action items over two meetings before approval. Board members officially took up the breakfast program during a special meeting Wednesday so that they can approve the program at the next regular meeting on Sept. 9.
The board didn’t include universal free breakfast in this school year’s budget. It added staff positions and paid off deficits instead of restoring the program during its last budget revision in July as well. The district estimates the program will cost $230,000 this school year.
Member Emil Mackey supports the program, but he said the district needs to find a way to get more families to apply for free and reduced lunch so the district can be reimbursed for some of the costs.
“I realize some of that might philosophically fall against the idea of universal free breakfast, but what I don’t want to happen is for us to fall into an unsustainability trap in the future and have to make this hard choice again,” he said.
Free and reduced lunch is part of the National School Lunch Program. It reimburses school districts to cover the cost of school meals for students who qualify.
Member Steve Whitney said when the district began the program, making breakfast free for everyone helped to encourage more students who already qualified for free and reduced meals to participate without judgement.
“To try to get around these – the amount of staff and effort and try to make it secret so kids weren’t embarrassed – it turned out to be cheaper just to make it universal, free breakfast,” he said.
The board may also discuss how to spend the district’s remaining extra funds under looming funding uncertainties from a proposed state regulation and contract negotiations with two of the district’s unions at its next meeting.
In the meantime, students will continue to pay full price for breakfast unless they qualify for free and reduced meals.
