Board opts into food program

It took months of debate for the Acadia Parish School Board to finally come to an agreement, but after an 8-0 vote Monday night, the school district will be providing breakfast and lunches free of charge to 19 schools in the district.

The district has also put new emphasis on making schools aware of the district’s breakfast program, particularly, as participation compared between breakfast and lunch is typically vastly different at schools.

Under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools that serve predominately low-income children are eligible for the The Community Eligibility Program.

Thirteen schools meet the qualifications as laid out by the federal government. They are Armstrong Middle, Central Rayne Kindergarten, Church Point Elementary, Church Point Middle, Crowley Kindergarten, Crowley Middle, Estherwood Elementary, Martin Petitjean (Rayne) Elementary, Mermentau Elementary, North Crowley Elementary, Ross (Crowley) Elementary, South Crowley Elementary and South Rayne Elementary.

Six more schools are on the cusp of complete eligibility, however, the board has opted to take the gamble of increased participation and zeroing out, or maybe even better, their participation.

Those six schools are Church Point High, Crowley High, Iota Elementary, Mire Elementary, Morse Elementary and Rayne High.

Before the board members came to an understanding during the special session, the opinions of each board member were heard.

Superintendent John Bourque presented the board with two sets of numbers, the first a breakdown of the 19 aforementioned schools’ average daily participation for last school year. With the exception of a few elementary schools, the difference between breakfast and lunch participation was vast.

For example, Central Rayne Kindergarten boasted 100 percent average participation at lunch, but only 38 percent at breakfast time.

That is where Acadia Parish feels it can and needs to improve. Not only for the numbers, but because it can provide many kids the start they need to begin the day and learn, according to Bourque.

“It’s energy for those kids to go the rest of the day,” said the superintendent. “There’s room for growth in breakfast. We’ll have to work the logistics out as we go.”

The target average increase across all 19 schools is 33 percent, as well as a slight increase in lunch numbers for the program to pay for itself.

“I think that if you tell these six schools that they can eat for free, they’ll go eat, mom and dad will make sure they go,” said Doug LaCombe.

Again, all sounded well and good and even with a breakdown of numbers more board members could see the program’s benefits — short- and long-term — but there was still some opposition.

“We’re not talking about the schools that aren’t there,” said Milton Simar, “and I understand that. ... I’m in a district, along with Mr. LaCombe, that our parents feel that if they can work, they are going to work. And, as a result, we may never get into this program, because of the pride they have in themselves. A lot of them would qualify and still don’t want it free because they have too much respect and pride.

“You have to figure that while it all sounds good, you have to think of these few that are never going to be put in a program.”

LaCombe reminded Simar that perhaps all the schools in the parish could be under this umbrella eventually.

“That all depends, if you get enough of these going, get it (the participation) high enough...” he said.

“And that’s what I’m getting to,” interrupted Simar. “Although I disagree with some paying and some not, ... if we can give it a shot ... if nothing else, make us look at the breakfasts and lunches these kids are not eating.”

Other board members said they feel the cause of the issues can be found elsewhere.

“I disagree with Mr. Simar,” said Lynn Shamsie. “That our district is poorer than your district and your district works harder than our district.

“You know one of the main reasons why some of these schools are not there is because principals don’t push the idea of free lunch. They don’t go out there and make sure those forms are filled out and sent back to the schools.”

It was Simar’s turn to disagree at this point, interrupting Shamsie to vocalize his displeasure toward Shamsie’s thought.

Simar, a former principal at Evangeline Elementary, pointed out that he made sure that those forms, and things of that nature were always returned to the school.

“Will you give me a chance to speak?” exclaimed Shamsie.

“It’s not because you’re poor or you have more pride than we’ve got in the Fifth Ward, it’s not. It’s because the principals are not pushing this free lunch  program.

“I’ll give you an example,” Shamsie continued. “Midland is not pushing it, not at all. And you can see why it’s there, when all the rest of them are pushing it. You can’t tell me that all the elementary schools in the Fifth Ward (Estherwood, Mermentau and Morse) qualify for free and reduced lunch, but when they get to Midland High all of sudden they don’t! There’s something wrong.”

Still, Simar expressed his sadness that some schools may never qualify for the program due to what he referenced as “pride.”

Fellow board member, James “Boz” Higginbotham, also disagreed with that idea.

“It’s not about pride,” he said. “There is no more pride in Iota than they have in Church Point.”

Pride or not, the board seemed to agree that participation can be brought up at breakfast time in elementary schools, pointing to the numbers at South Crowley Elementary as an example.

South Crowley’s breakfast participation was, on average, 70 percent last year.

“I called the principal at South Crowley this morning and asked ‘Why do you  have 70 percent eating?’” said Bourque.

Irma Trosclair, principal of South Crowley Elementary, replied that when the students get to school they are brought straight to the cafeteria, encouraging each student to go to the cafeteria to start their day.

After talking to some of the schools, Bourque said he feels that they are not only receptive to the ideas, but willing to help take them on as well.

If nothing more, the program is also giving the district a chance to really look at its food program, particularly breakfast, and it is considering also fixing times and incorporating breakfast time into the curriculum or announcements, especially for the pre-kindergarten through first grade crowds as needed.

From there, the district will assess things after October, food services’ biggest month, and see if other things need to be tweaked to help make breakfast more available to students at all school levels.

While the in-effect date is Monday, Sept. 1, due to Labor Day, the actual in-effect date for the 19 schools will be Tuesday, Sept. 2.