The Littlestown Area School District Board of Directors finalized the agenda for their June 19 meeting, including seeking approval of the proposed 2023-2024 school year budget.
The proposed budget includes revenues of $37,997,336 and expenditures of $39,168,514, which would pull $1,171,178 from the fund balance. The budget includes a 2.75% local tax increase, with 2.2% attributed to the middle and high school consolidation project and .55% to operations.
“Schools are not inflation-proof,” said District Superintendent Chris Bigger. He added that the cost of transportation, fuel, charter schools, health care, and escalating building expenses was the cause of the increase.
The middle/secondary consolidation project will include adding 60,000 square feet to the front of the high school and a new kitchen extension on the back. New classroom additions will be designed around science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM). The gold gym and main entrance will be renovated as well. The tentative completion date is the summer of 2025.
On the same agenda, the finance and budget committee will recommend approval of the Homestead/Farmstead Exclusion to reduce approved property owner taxes by an average of about $261.
The board is also expected to approve the collection of taxes by the Adams County Treasurer’s office, which is filling in for a tax collector vacancy in Germany Township.
The current budget will also include the last year of ESSEER Covid emergency-relief funds providing the district with $800,000 for staff and services in the Level-Up school-based mental health program. LASD has partnered with Cognitive Health Solutions to provide a certified school psychologist next year, ($149,0000), a behavior specialist ($128,000), and a mental health therapist and counsel ($128,125). Services will include coordination and documentation of all referrals, contacting parents to obtain consent, and maintaining all documents in a secure HIPAA-compliant format ($5,500).
School Lunch Upgrades
If the thought of school lunches conjures up a vision of students shuffling in line holding their trays while food service workers slop great piles of mystery nutrients on their plates, think again.
“It’s not a line,” said Bigger. “It’s more like a food court.” He was describing the self-serve options that will predominate when the new Biglerville High School cafeteria is reconfigured.
Other food-service options have also been added. Corn-husking/shucking to provide staff and students with student-grown cobs of sweet corn in October, Tater Tot stations, Johnny Appleseed Day, Discovery Kitchen, and food service staff dressed like heroes are all ways that Brenda Davidson, LASD senior director of dining services, described as special food days last year.
“Discovery Kitchen helps our kitchen become a classroom and offers the students the opportunity to taste something different,” added Mike Polash, spokesman for Chartwells, the food service agency that partners with LASD. This year, the new food to taste was chocolate hummus, served with strawberries. “The students seemed to like the strawberries best,” Davidson said.
Next year, Discovery Kitchen will be in operation again, and a new venture, Global Eats, will be the focus in October, allowing students the option of tasting different foods from around the world. Davidson sees new opportunities such as made-to-order salads, sandwiches, and hot food sandwich stations that will encourage students to take advantage of school lunches.
The breakfast focus in the fall will be to expand available items, possibly offering smoothies and yogurt.
Currently, about 47 percent of students buy lunches at school This number is down from last year when lunches were free due to COVID recovery grants. The change to paid lunches resulted in lower free breakfast numbers, even though breakfast remained complimentary.
Polash said that if each building can keep the participation rate for free breakfast at 20 percent or higher, it will mean a per-pupil state reimbursement at the lunch level.
He added that free breakfast might also be important to the 41 percent of the students who currently qualify for free and reduced meals. “Who knows if they leave home without breakfast?” he asked.
Judith Cameron Seniura is a freelance reporter. She began her journalism career in the early ‘70s and has written for newspapers, magazines, and other media in Ontario, Canada, Alaska, Michigan, Nebraska, San Antonio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.