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Since the start of the school year, students at Cape Hatteras Elementary and Cape Hatteras Secondary schools and the Dare Learning Academy have received breakfast and lunch at no cost.

The two Cape Hatteras schools combined qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision. The two schools had a score of 50 out of 62.5. The school nutrition program pays the difference between the schools’ score and the program standard. Dare Schools as a whole has a score of 35.

But the Dare County Board of Education was dealing with the School Nutrition Program, which has run at a deficit for many years. Some of that deficit is from unpaid student meals. As of Sept.  9, this year’s debt is already at $2,000.

At the end of last year, the program was $39,000 in debt. Through pleading letters and phone calls, parents paid up $12,000 of the debt. The School Nutrition Program is an enterprise account and cannot operate at a deficit. The school board transfers fund balance to the program’s books.

Last year, the school board enacted a policy putting a $10 cap on unpaid meals. At a rate of $3.25 per lunch, that means a student in middle or high school can miss paying for three meals. Two times, the policy was sent back to the board’s Policy Committee.

Historically, if a student reached the cap, the student would be served a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or veggies and fruit, or a cheese sandwich, which could have a tendency to attach a stigma on a student.

On Friday, Sept. 20, the 5-on-5 Committee met at the request of the school board. The committee is comprised of five people from the Dare County School Board and five people from Dare County. Three elected board members from each group along with the finance directors and county manager and superintendent are the committee members.

Dare County Schools Superintendent Steve Basnight explained the debt problem and described two programs for all students to receive breakfast and lunch at no cost.

Basnight made four recommendations: do nothing, cover charge cost, or engage in a state Department of Public Instruction Universal Meals program. The fourth recommendation, the Community Eligibility Provision, was quickly dismissed as the majority of Dare’s schools would not qualify for the program. Some 106 of the 115 school districts in the state participate in some form in this universal meals program, which would cost Dare County an estimated $400,000.

At its September meeting, the Dare school board approved providing breakfast and lunch at no cost for 30 days, which puts pressure on making a decision.

Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert L. Woodard said “no child will be unfed.”

In discussion, two Board of Education members, Ron Payne and Carl Woody, expressed misgivings about the universal meals program.

Woodard responded, “this is your issue. You all need, as a board, to find a solution.”

Woodward called for public comment.

Payne responded to a question: “I think there’s a better way other than spend $400,000 … We need to discuss this as a board.”

As suggested at the 5-on-5 meeting, the Dare County Board of Education has called a special meeting for Sept. 26, 2024 at 5 p.m. at the Dare County Administration Building in Manteo. The purpose of the meeting is for the board to meet in closed session “to consult with the Board of Education attorney to preserve the attorney-client privilege …; to consider confidential personnel matters …; and to discuss and consider possible options to resolve the student meals debt issue.”

The open portion of the meeting, which includes the discussion about student meals debt issue, will be live-streamed on the Dare County Schools website.

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