Schools no longer serving free lunch to all students:
District 1:Allen Elementary North Hamilton County Elementary School Sequoyah High School Soddy Daisy Middle School District 3: Hixson High School District 6: Lookout Valley Middle/High District 9: Snow Hill Elementary Source: The Hamilton County Department of Education
Some say there's no such thing as a free lunch.
And Hamilton County school board member Rhonda Thurman would agree.
During Thursday night's board meeting, Thurman mentioned that four of the seven schools across the county that are no longer able to serve free breakfast and lunch to all students are in her district in the northern part of the county.
"If the government giveth, the government can taketh away," Thurman said.
Due to a new federal mandate, the Hamilton County Department of Education had to recalculate which schools across the county could offer free meals to all students. The school board voted 7-2 Thursday night to approve the changes, meaning that seven schools no longer will be able to feed all students a free breakfast and lunch.
Thurman said changes in government programs like this are why she voted against the school board accepting the grant years ago. She said families in her county now will have to pay for their kids' meals, while families down the road making more money will get meals for free.
School board member Greg Martin also voted against the grant, saying he doesn't believe federal dollars should be spent feeding all students at a school when only some children qualify for the government's free lunch program.
But Hamilton County Department of Education School Nutrition Director Carolyn Childs was quick to remind the board how many students have benefited from the program and may not have eaten otherwise.
"Sadly, we saw kids go hungry, even in very affluent communities," Childs said.
She also added that she's purchased $1.5 million in equipment for schools across the county because of the revenue the district received through the program, and said offering free meals to all students erases any of the stigmas that exist.
"The government spends a lot of money on a lot of things, and I can't think of more appropriate spending than on kids," Childs said. "And there is no cost to the district [for this program.]"
School board member George Ricks said he'd like to see every student in the district receive free meals at school, and mentioned that is something the school system could consider funding.
If the school board had not voted to approve the proposal Thursday night, every school in the district, instead of just seven, could have been forced to stop serving free meals to all students.
The need to recalculate which schools are eligible for the program began when Falling Water Elementary School was closed this year. The district was required by the federal government to recalculate its Community Eligibility Provision, which allowed the school system to provide free meals for three years to all students at more than half of the district's schools.
In order to qualify for the CEP, a school or group of schools within a district must have at least 40 percent of its students be eligible for free meals by direct certification, which means their family receives certain government assistance.
Hamilton County chose to treat schools in the district as a group, allowing the system to offer free meals to more students than if individual schools applied for the grant.
In a previous meeting, Hamilton County Schools Assistant Superintendent Lee McDade warned the board about pending legislation that could increase the cutoff for CEP eligibility to 60 percent, which would again reduce the number of schools in the county that can provide free meals in coming years.
Regardless of schools being removed from eligibility this year or from future legislation, students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunches will continue receiving meals, but the school will have to return to the traditional model of using meal applications from individual households to determine free lunch eligibility, according to Childs.
The school board also voted Thursday night to accept an offer made on the old East Brainerd Elementary School property for $4.5 million by Legends Holdings. That offer could take about six months to finalize.
School board attorney Scott Bennett said the school system will come away with a net gain of $4.1 million from the sale of the property.
Martin proposed that the money go into an account designated for capital improvements, and school board Chairman Jonathan Welch said that when the deal is finished the board should have that discussion.
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at 423-757-6592 or kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @kendi_and.