RUSK — A rise in school lunch prices is among several changes slated for Rusk ISD cafeterias.

The school board approved a 25-cent increase in lunch prices across the board. Lunches for the primary, elementary and intermediate will increase from $1.75 to $2. Prices for junior high and high school students will increase from $2 to $2.25.

School officials said this is the first increase in prices in three years.

“This is one of those items that falls under some federal guidelines for the pricing of our school lunches,” said superintendent Dr. James Largent. “There's a calculation that we have to use. It has to be equivalent to what the reimbursement is for free and reduced (lunches), basically. We do have some federal requirements to go up on these prices.”

The price increase would only apply to the 40 percent of students who pay full price for their lunches. School officials said the increase may prompt students who qualify for free or reduced lunches to fill out the paperwork.  

School officials said the increase would put Rusk ISD in line with pricing at Jacksonville ISD and lower than some schools in the area. The change will not affect breakfast prices, and will not change reduced-price lunch rates, which is set by federal standards.

Lesa Jones, executive director of finance, said Alto ISD currently charges $2.25 at the elementary and $2.50 at the high school. Frankson charges $2.25 for all its campuses.

Jacksonville has a tiered system, were the elementary campuses pay $1.75, Nichols Intermediate and the middle school pay $2 and the high school pays $2.25.

“We are very much in line with the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act that passed in 2010,” Jones said. “There is a provision in there that you have to look at the equity in school lunch pricing, and they make us look at our current weighed average price. It has to meet a certain dollar amount.”

Other changes include plastic milk cartons at all campuses. Jones said the district usually participate  with Region 7 schools on a bid for milk products, but this year the district went out for bids on its own. The lowest bid went to Oak Farms.

“The kids do take the plastic much more,” Jones said. “We only offer plastic right now at the high school. Our plans are to offer plastic district-wide next year. The price is less than what we paid for paper cartons this year.”

The board also approved amendment to the food service budget for $63,000 to purchase new equipment for cafeterias. Jones said it is part of the campuses long-range plan to update cafeteria facilities. The total cost this year will replace the serving line at the elementary, and add convection steamers and warming cabinets to other campuses.

“Some of these are replacements,” she said. “The serving line at the elementary needed to be replaced ... A lot of this is trying to target the new food content nutritional value that is going to be implemented for the next school year, and some of the purchases had to do with that.”