MINERSVILLE - The district is raising the price of school lunches next school year as mandated by the Federal Department of Agriculture.
Superintendent M. Joseph Brady said that while Minersville's cafeterias are not in need of the funding, in order for the district to remain eligible to receive free or reduced lunch prices the department has mandated the increase.
During the 2012-13 school year, breakfast will remain 95 cents at all schools, but lunch for elementary students will increase from $1.95 to $2.05, for secondary students from $2.10 to $2.20, for adults from $3.50 to $3.60 and for St. Nicholas School students from $2.60 to $2.70.
In other business, during an informational item on the agenda with no actions taken, Brady told the board about the amount of money the district is spending a year to send students to the Gillingham Charter School in Pottsville.
Opening in September, Gillingham is the first charter school in Schuylkill County and is made up of students from all school districts in the county.
With an open enrollment policy, the charter school had about 180 students at the beginning of the school year and was capped at 200 students. Its enrollment has remained between about 160 and 180 students.
Brady said the charter school is an experiment pushed upon the taxpayers of Pennsylvania by the legislators in Harrisburg and that there are 21 regular education students being sent to the charter school at $7,115.67 each and four special education students being sent at $19,549.79 each, totaling $227,628.23.
"I would like to venture an opinion that the experiment is a failure," Brady said.
He also said he would like local legislators to react and appreciate comments from treasurer Albert D. Marazas.
The next meeting of the school board was rescheduled to May 29 due to the Memorial Day holiday.