Lunch prices will increase in the Smyrna School District next year, the board decided at its June 18 meeting.

At the recommendation of Child Nutrition Office supervisor Patricia Conley, the board raised lunch prices from $1.10 to $1.25 at the elementary schools and from $1.25 to $1.50 at the middle and high schools.

The breakfast price will increase from 70 to 80 cents, and teacher lunch prices are now $2.75, up 50 cents from $2.25 last year.

“Student meal prices are on the rise as are returned checks,” Conley told the board. “The need for the increase in lunch prices is to cover these factors.”

Conley said school lunch prices have not increased in Smyrna since the 2001-02 school year.

“$1.50 for lunch is still a pretty good bargain,” said board member Chris Malec.

The current average cost to produce a meal in the Smyrna School District is $2.19, but money raised through the a la carte items helps offset the deficit, Conley said. The school district also gets money from the federal government.

To offset high energy costs, Conley said the district will serve cold lunches in all of the schools on Wednesdays as well as cold breakfast every other day.

Providence Creek Academy charter school in Clayton also raised school lunch prices in May, along with most public school districts in the state including Appoquinimink, Caesar Rodney, and Cape Henlopen.

Credit recovery program helps 20 seniors graduate

Smyrna School District Superintendent Debbie Wicks announced that the first year of the Credit Recovery Program helped 20 seniors graduate on time.

The program, run by teacher Don Smith, helps students catch up using online technology. Students can access the lectures from a computer at school or at home, but take exams in the classroom.

“This was just the beginning of the program, helping some students to finish on time,” Wicks said.

School choice requests approved

The board also approved 15 school choice requests at the meeting.

One inter-district transfer was approved because the student’s guardian works in the district, and 14 intra-district transfers were approved for families with daycare transportation needs, for parents who work at one school but live in the boundaries of another, or families building a house in the boundaries of a different school from where they currently live.

Part-time teachers hired for Sunnyside

The board approved several personnel changes at the meeting, hiring of part-time music and physical education teachers at Sunnyside Elementary School.

The music teacher will be Irv Rothenberg, who retired from a full-time teaching position at North Elementary School. Patrick Conlon will teach physical education.

An art teacher will also be split between Sunnyside, where she will teach in the afternoons, and Smyrna Middle School, where she will teach in the mornings.

School administrators said that in the coming years as Sunnyside grows, the positions may become full time, but for now there are too few students to warrant full-time specials teachers.

For the top stories from the June 18 school board meeting, see the “High school renovations to cost $51.8 million” in the June 23 Sun-Times and “School tax increase likely for Smyrna-Clayton property owners."