The Lawrence school board on Monday did not vote on the district’s plan to increase meal prices by 10 cents for a third consecutive year.
Setting meal prices was originally on the consent agenda — a list of items routinely approved in one motion unless a board member or the superintendent pulls an item for discussion — Monday, but administrators moved it to the regular agenda before the meeting.
Superintendent Jeanice Swift said the district wanted to offer more rationale before the board took a vote. The 10-cent increase “has become necessary in order to keep our food and nutrition part of our organization self-sustaining,” Swift said.
Julie Henry, director of nutrition and wellness, said the district’s weighted paid meal price in 2024-25 was around $3, but the United States Department of Agriculture determined its weighted average price requirement for lunch in 2025-26 is nearly $1 more than that. The difference is a loss on every fully paid meal the district serves to a student.
The district wants to avoid dipping into its general fund if the trend continues, Henry said.
“We do not want the district general fund to step in and have to cover, because we want that money to be going to the classrooms and to the teachers,” she said.
Federal law requires local districts to annually adjust their meal prices to align with the USDA, and 10 cents is the minimum increase allowed each year.
In 2024-25, lunch rates for elementary, middle and high school students who are not in the free and reduced-price lunch program are $3, $3.20 and $3.25. If approved, new prices in 2025-26 would be set at $3.10 for elementary, $3.30 for middle and $3.35 for high schools.
Full-price breakfasts for elementary, middle and high school students were previously set at $2, $2.10 and $2.15. New prices would be $2.10 for elementary, $2.20 for middle and $2.25 for high schools.
Reduced-price lunches and breakfasts would remain the same, priced at 40 cents and 30 cents, respectively.
Adult meals would cost $5.10 for lunch and $3.10 for breakfast, up from $5 and $3.
Henry said she spoke with some area districts that had cheaper meal prices in 2024-25 than Lawrence but have proposed a larger increase in 2025-26 — Blue Valley and Olathe proposing a 30-cent increase.
“They’re catching up by doing a larger price increase in one year, whereas we have, as you saw in those last charts, have been just steadily chipping away at it and hoping that that is less dramatic of a change for our families and more manageable,” Henry said.
The board is set to vote at its next meeting on Monday, June 23. More information on how the district sets meal prices is included on the BoardDocs agenda.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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