Lakeland School Lunch Vote Is Food For Thought Passage Of Levy Makes District Eligible For Title I Subsidies

When Lakeland School District voters agreed this week to spend $725,000 to set up a lunch program, they did more than guarantee full bellies for students.

They opened the door to hundreds of thousands of federal dollars that can be used to help kids learn to read.

“That’s money that we’re losing out on,” said school booster Larry Clark.

Clark was among those who campaigned for the supplemental levy that passed on Tuesday, with 61 percent of the vote. The focus of the effort was feeding hungry kids and improving educational performance.

“As one teacher said to me, ‘Just try to teach a hungry child how to read or do math,”’ Clark said.

Nearly every other school district already has a federally subsidized hot lunch program. And along with it, they get money from a remedial education program called Title I.

Title I dollars are tied to the number of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. The Coeur d’Alene District got $765,000 from Title I this year.

Lacking a lunch program, the Lakeland District could qualify for Title I based only on the number of students whose families applied to get free milk.

Because milk costs only 5 cents a day, few families bothered to fill out the lengthy forms and answer personal questions, said Mary Havercroft, special services director.

So Lakeland gets only about $125,000 to provide extra help for elementary students who have trouble reading.

Lakeland officials don’t know how much more money will come into the district after the fall of 1998, when the lunch program begins.

“And how it will affect other school districts, we don’t know,” said Havercroft. “If we take more, they probably will get less.”

That’s because only so many Title I dollars come into a county, based on census figures for low-income residents. The amount coming to Kootenai County won’t expand just because Lakeland is entitled to more.

Post Falls gets between $300,000 and $400,000 each year, said curriculum director Becky Ford. She said she’s not worried about the effect on her district. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Added Ford: “The Title I program absolutely does incredible things for students. I’m thrilled that Lakeland will finally get some of that pie.”

, DataTimes