Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

School lunch prices set to rise 10 cents

CLOVIS — School lunch prices will go up by 10 cents next year, according to a federal mandate. 

“I hate to say it, but we don’t have any choice but to approve it,” said Clovis Municipal Schools Board of Education Vice President Terry Martin at the board’s regular meeting Tuesday. 

A new United States Department of Agriculture regulation will bring the cost of “paid lunches” to $2.10 and $2.35 for elementary and secondary school students, respectively. 

The price hikes will not impact free breakfast, still available for all-students, or the “no charge” meal policy for students in the “reduced category,” according to a letter from CMS Director of Child Nutrition Paul Klein. 

The board voted unanimously to approve the price increase, effective for the 2017-18 school year beginning Aug. 14. 

Also at Tuesday’s board meeting:

• Clovis High School band was approved for a four-day trip in November to St. George, Utah, for the Red Rocks Marching Contest and Bands of America Regional Marching Contest. Occurring Nov. 2-5, the trip is budgeted for 220 students and 22 chaperones. 

• Two cement mixers in the district’s inventory that haven’t been used in about 20 years were approved for sale at a local auction. 

• Rhonda Sparks was presented with the 2016-17 School Nurse Administrator of the Year Award from the New Mexico School Nursing Association. Sparks has been “working to keep our students healthy for a long time,” said Deputy Superintendent Joe Strickland.

• CHS business teacher Karena Langan spoke to the board on a program in development for the coming school year aimed at molding aspiring educators in their first year of high school. The CHS Freshman Academy Educators Rising Club is distinct from the Future Educators of America program in that it is geared primarily for ninth grade students rather than upperclassmen. It will most likely commence as an extracurricular club soon after the school year begins, said Langan. 

• Sam Kelley, a member of the Clovis Masonic Lodge, asked board members for help in recruiting student participants for a Dyslexic Learning and Reading Center program in the works with support from the Lodge. The program aims to enroll at least six students aged 6-12 and commence in early September.