Tioga ISD will be gently easing students and their families into paying for breakfast for the 2025-26 school year.
Although the district held off for years on charging students and staff for the first meal of the day, the policy will now be that students pay $1 and staff $3.40, with the lunch prices set at $3.20 for students and $4.80 for staff.
“Your heart’s in one place; common sense is in another,” trustee Billy Smith said on Monday evening.
The trustees debated whether to charge what would amount to full-price for students to eat breakfast at $2.54 and a partial measure, landing on the partial measure.
“If we get that 40-cent reimbursement, the contribution from the district would be $1.14; that’s less than half of what we’ve been doing,” Ballinger said.
Having provided free breakfast was costing the district around $50,000 in the past, Superintendent Josh Ballinger said.
Lunch prices were a nonnegotiable on an increase.
“Just straight up inflation,” Ballinger said. “We’re lucky it’s only 20 cents. That’s set entirely on what that will cost to prepare.”
The reduced portion of the free and reduced meal program is still free to the students, with the state reimbursing the district for less of the cost.
Vice President Trina Colteryahn expressed a desire for more proactive communication from community members about their preferences for hottopic issues, adding that she had only received a little bit of feedback.
The change is projected to save the district tens of thousands of dollars as it continues to work on clawing its way out of financial turmoil.
“It’s no secret that we have financial problems,” she said. “I would pay $2.14 for my kids to eat.”
Also on Monday night, the school board adopted the combined tax rate of $1.2269 per $100 valuation, with 50 cents of that for the debt service rate.
“We initially posted our tax rate back in June when we adopted the budget,” Ballinger said. “That was the public posting through the paper. I did not think that we would be sitting here on the 18th of August adopting the exact same rate that we did last year, but for the first time since I can remember, we weren’t compressed on that Tier 1 maximum compression rate.”
The board also voted again to authorize the creation of the TISD Police Department while also renewing the “good cause” exemption that allows for the district’s current defender/ guardian program.
“This is just splitting hairs again to try to get all of the paperwork ahead of TCOLE kicking it back and saying you don’t have your T’s crossed and your I’s dotted,” Ballinger said about the resolution regarding the police department formation.
Following the executive session, the board selected Holly Mizer to fill the vacancy left by Dugan Rainey’s resignation.
Mizer brings a wealth of professional knowledge regarding state agencies revolving around child safety and well-being to the board.
The board also approved the proposed changes to the Student Code of Conduct that were finalized during the course of the meeting.
by Christi Crowe.
