The DeKalb County Board of Education voted Thursday night to raise the price of school lunches 10 cents.
The current price of $1.25 for a school lunch will increase to $1.35 for pre-kindergarten students to third graders and from $1.50 to $1.60 for fourth through twelfth graders when the 2011-12 school year begins.
School Nutrition Supervisor Stephanie Walker originally asked for a 25 cent increase in price to preclude her department from asking for another increase next year, but board members felt that a quarter might be excessive.
According to Walker, at least an additional five cent increase is necessary to satisfy USDA recommendations.
The price of breakfast for all students will remain unchanged at $1.00
Walker had recommended that the price be increased by twenty-five cents partly to cover the rise in the cost of food over the next three years.
"The only reason that I'm asking for a quarter increase is that USDA, using the current rates of inflation, says if a school system charges as much as $2.46 for a paid lunch it would not be required to increase prices,”  Walker told the board.
“They want us to increase by at least five cents,” she continued. “The only reason I'm asking for a quarter is to cover us for about the next three years so I won't have to ask for it again. This is a requirement through USDA that we do that to eventually reach $2.46, which I feel we're far away from, but it is a plan for the future.
 "This is also hopefully to try not to get in the red,”  Walker said. “A lot of schools feel like they will go in the red and that they will use their a la carte money to cover them for those months that they go in the red. A la carte is just individual items sold within the schools such as french fries. If you get a meal and you wanted an extra french fry, that would cost fifty cents and that's considered a la carte.
They're using their a la carte process to cover them going into the red. However, we don't sell a lot of a la carte. Our main school is the high school where we provide a la carte. Every now and then in the elementary schools they can buy an extra meal, but that's about all we do. So this is just to decrease the potential of going into the red.
“I feel like we have done a really good job at keeping our lunch prices as low as we can,”  Walker said.
School board member Bruce Parsley told Walker that he could not get behind the quarter increase, as it added up to a significant amount of money over the course of the school year, and that many parents who were already strapped for cash would feel the greatest pinch.
"I've got three kids in the school system and I've got a friend who has five kids in the system and the difference between a dime and a quarter over a year's time is close to two hundred dollars," said Parsley.
"I would be more in favor of going with a dime (increase) right now and if we need another dime next year, come back and get another dime," Lattimore added.
With more than sixty percent of DeKalb County students qualifying for either free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches, much of the  food service budget for the school system is supported by federal funds under this assistance program.
The rest of the cost is made up by local parents who can afford to buy their children’s meals.
The food service budget does not receive any local tax dollars to fund its operation.
The DeKalb County Board of Education Thursday night voted to purchase a Transportation Software program from Zonar Systems in order to cut down on fuel costs and to speed up repairs.
It also automates and verifies bus inspections.
The software system from Zonar industries will keep track of the buses, monitoring their location and recording data such as idle times, hard braking, and speeding.
Kelly Lee, a representative of Zonar, spoke to the board about his product.
Lee told the school board that the system is a cell phone based tracking program that simplifies the inspection process of a school bus.
He said that it is very simple to operate,  and captures and stores fleet performance data.
The cost of the system is $27,127.
"Its basically a cell phone-based system that we use to monitor fuel costs and excessive idle times, excessive speeding and location reporting," Lee told the board.
"We use what we call a zone based system that can tell where the bus is as far as school zones and where the bus is at as far as drive out or drive home.
“Anything to do with where the vehicle is at all times, we can tell you where its at. Is it running? Is it using excessive amounts of fuel? Is it speeding?
Primarily, is it speeding in school zones or anywhere where there is a reduced speed zone? It can tell you that," Lee said.
" If it leaves a location it’s not supposed to leave, it can tell you that. Totaling fuel mileage, totaling hard braking, it can do all that. Also, part of the request is an inspection system that ensures that all of the drivers do an entire physical inspection on the whole bus and that every inspection they do, whether it be a special needs bus or a straight bus, that everybody is doing the same inspection and a physical walk around of the vehicle. Pre-trip, post-trip, student/child check, anything like that, they (bus drivers) have to do a physical walk around of the vehicle,” Lee continued.
“It’s all paperless. Its all accessible on the Internet and if any driver gets pulled over by the DOT (Department of Transportation), we (Zonar) are approved in all fifty states for the DOT to view up to thirteen inspections on the system.
It’s cell phone based, so there are situations where you won't have cell phone service, but in an event where you don't have cell phone service, the system is still actually working and once you get into an area where you do have cell phone service, it recovers all the information. So none of the information is lost and it’s all gathered," Lee went on.
"We've got a system that we've worked with in Chicago called Freeport School System, and they saved 21 percent on their fuel last year alone.
“When you're talking 21 percent of a fuel bill at four dollars a gallon, its a pretty hefty number. I guarantee you that the system will pay for itself or we will take it back. Part of the quote is to have two people come in and train for two days on how to use the system and if you utilize the system I can promise you from a savings standpoint, you're going to pay for the system and when you're ensuring that every driver is doing a physical inspection every day and you know how long it has taken them in each area, and in each location you know exactly what they're riding in and you don't have to rely on a hand-written inspection. You know you can view it at any time. Just the safety in that alone is worth that.
“From the day you get the system or even a year from then, if you get a call from someone who says a certain bus was speeding in our neighborhood a year ago, all you have to do is get the address, plug it in and we can know how fast that bus was going and what time it went through there. All the information is valid based on our GPS software," he concluded.
Meanwhile, Director Willoughby presented his monthly update on personnel.
Jimmy Sprague has been named as interim Transportation Manager for the school system.
Penelope Mason, Jonathon Fontanez and Michelle Fontanez have resigned their positions with the system.
Amy Tobitt, a teacher at DCHS, has been granted a leave of absence as requested.