THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220502 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN AND KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITERS DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The cost of school lunches, already the highest in South Hampton Roads, will rise by 10 cents in February and by another dime next September.
School Board members and administrators said the hike is unrelated to the district's financial crisis, but the budget history and at least one official suggest otherwise.
By a 7-4 vote, the School Board on Tuesday took what is expected to be an unpopular stand with parents whose children now pay $1 a day for elementary school lunches and $1.10 for secondary school meals.
The price hikes ultimately will raise those fees to $1.20 and $1.30 respectively. School breakfasts, which now cost 60 cents, will rise to 70 cents in February and to 80 cents next September.
The increases, the first in four years, will help the district overcome higher costs associated with opening new schools, price hikes in food, paper and additional menu choices, administrators said.
The increases also are linked to what is now a common problem for the district: underbudgeting its expenses.
Donald A. Peccia, associate superintendent for administrative services, told the board Tuesday that the district underbudgeted its share of employee health insurance by $366,000.
Under questioning from board members, district officials insisted the price hikes were not caused by the on-going budget problems, even though the district used cafeteria funds to help balance the 1993-94 operating budget and tried to do the same last year.
But if the district hadn't tapped cafeteria funds to help balance the operating budget, it might not have needed the higher fees, district spokesman H.J. ``Joe'' Lowenthal said Tuesday evening.
The cafeteria fund is one of four accounts separate from the district's day-to-day operating fund that generates income through fees.
Two years ago, the district started using cafeteria funds to pay for costs related only indirectly to meals, such as cafeteria electric bills, Lowenthal said.
The district avoided deficit spending in 1993-94 by transferring more than $900,000 from the independent cafeteria fund into the operating budget, Lowenthal and others have said.
The administration tried to tap that fund again last year to avoid a deficit, but the fund didn't have enough money to sufficiently bolster the operating account. The district's deficit for last year totaled $12.1 million and it is facing a deficit as high as $8.6 million for this fiscal year, according to school officials.
``The transfer to the operating budget for the indirect costs obviously contributed to the shortfall in the cafeteria fund,'' Lowenthal said.
The cost of school lunches in Virginia Beach is already higher than in neighboring cities, Lowenthal said, because fewer students receive federally subsidized lunches.
Board members sought assurances Tuesday that the need for higher lunch prices was unrelated to the district's budget problems.
Board member Ulysses Van Spiva pointedly asked Thomas Wilson, an auditor with Goodman & Co., if the price increase was related. The Norfolk accounting firm earlier had audited the district's cafeteria fund.
``There is no relationship to the deficit,'' Wilson said. ILLUSTRATION: Chart
School Lunch Price Comparison
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS SCHOOL LUNCH by CNB