Lunch, Parking Fees Slightly Increase Next Year for Greendale Schools

Lunch fees and parking rates for the high school will go up in the next year but all other fees will stay the same.

Lunch fees will see a slight increase of 5 cents at the elementary schools and 10 cents at the and . Adult lunch fees will go up by 25 cents.

The lunch fees are increasing because the cost of food and transportation have risen and are expected to continue rising the following year, according to a report from Erin Green, director of business services.

Green said that it had been two years since an increase was placed.

“These changes are coming from the national school lunch program where they are trying to get the cost closer to the federal reimbursement for Free and Reduced Lunch,” said Green at school board meeting on Monday night.

Green also said in that report that a new standard will be in place by 2013 and “to prepare for it most school systems are trying to gradually increase prices, rather than have a large increase in one year.”

Other school districts are raising lunch fees by 10 cents or 15 cents, Green said.

Parking fees will increase from $1 to $2 at the high school in order to make the semester parking more affordable than the daily rate. The semester parking will remain the same rate of $85.

Carrie Staats, a Greendale Student Representative, said at a previous board meeting that most students would rather pay for the $1 daily parking rate because it was actually cheaper than the semester parking rate.

"We needed to make the semester parking less costly than paying by the day, otherwise kids would pay daily.. just an adjustment to have the rate make sense," said Green in an e-mail to Patch.

All other fees will remain the same due to the continued economic troubles of families, said Green.