NPS Board of Education approves new lunch price; district eyes legal action
Apr. 13—Norman Public Schools' Board of Education approved an annual 10-cent price hike for school lunches and authorized the district to potentially join legal action against a state board, among other things, at its Monday night meeting.
The board on Monday welcomed back Dirk O'Hara, who reclaimed his Office No. 1 board seat in the April 6 election. While O'Hara was serving as the board's president prior to Monday, the board elected member Dan Snell its president moving forward.
Board members approved a 10-cent raise in school lunch prices, an annual action the district takes to stay in compliance with federal requirements.
NPS Chief Financial Officer Brenda Burkett said that in order for NPS to stay in line with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act — 2010 federal legislation that supports funding for school lunches and other nutrition programs — Norman has raised its school lunch prices by a dime every year for the last few years.
School lunch prices will move from $2.80 to $2.90 at the elementary level and $2.95 to $3.05 at the secondary level. The district does offer free and reduced lunches, and provided free breakfasts and lunches for all students during this school year because of federal pandemic provisions.
The board also authorized NPS to, if necessary, join other Oklahoma school districts in filing a lawsuit against the State Board of Education.
The district's preemptive action comes in response to a March 25 vote by the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which elected to make certain public funding streams available to the state's charter schools beginning this summer.
The Tulsa World reports that the move would redistribute certain money that is currently only going to public schools, making the funding available to charter schools based on which school district boundaries they fall in.
NPS Superintendent Nick Migliorino said Monday that the funding redistribution could mean "tens of millions of dollars that could be redirected away from public schools."
"It is really important for all of our teachers and all of our students that those tens of millions of dollars make their way to our classrooms, not to other places, because I do believe that that would be precedent setting in other areas if that continues to move forward," Migliorino said. "It's almost like public schools are slowly getting suffocated, or the funding just slowly, inch by inch, gets taken away, and I do believe there's an end goal there, and that's what we have to stand up against."
The state board's vote has met resistance from major school districts like Tulsa and Oklahoma City public schools, along with leaders like State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, The Tulsa World reports.
"I would think, and I would hope that you're going to be approaching the attorney general, because this is clearly against the law that was passed by the legislature — let's let them fight our legal battle for us and not have to pay for it if we don't have to," O'Hara said Monday.
In his update to the board Monday, Migliorino also mentioned that the district is working to provide Pfizer vaccinations for high school students 16 and older at the end of April or mid-May. Exact dates have not been set, the superintendent said.
Emma Keith covers Norman Public Schools and the University of Oklahoma for The Transcript. Reach her at ekeith@normantranscript.com or at @emma_ckeith.
