More schools will offer free meals to all students

Guy Lucas, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read
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Jun. 14—GUILFORD COUNTY — The number of public schools in Guilford County where all students will be able to get breakfast and lunch for free will grow by 40% for the 2023-24 school year.

After a COVID-19-related program providing free meals for all students expired last year, 65 schools in Guilford County Schools had high enough poverty levels that they qualified in the 2022-23 school year for all of their students to get free meals, according to a presentation shown to the Guilford County Board of Education on Tuesday.

This fall, another 27 schools will qualify, including Shadybrook Elementary, Southwest Guilford Middle, Penn-Griffin School for the Arts, Kearns Academy and the Middle College at GTCC-High Point in High Point, and Millis Road Elementary, Jamestown Middle and Ragsdale High in Jamestown.

A significant number of students at these schools previously qualified for free or reduced-price meals, but now their families will not be required to fill out an application for the coming school year.

The additions will mean fewer GCS students will incur debt from not having money to pay for meals at school. The 27 schools accounted for more than $68,000 of the overall $117,000 in school meal debt in GCS in the 2022-23 school year, according to the presentation. Private donations have paid off that debt.

The addition of the 27 schools also means that nearly three-quarters of GCS schools, accounting for 72% of the total GCS student population, will offer all students free meals during the coming school year, the presentation showed.

At the other schools, low-income families must apply for free or reduced-price meals. Counting those students, more than 80% of all GCS students will be able to receive free meals.

A school qualifies if enough of its students participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; or Medicaid. In addition, schools may qualify if enough students are homeless, migrants or runaways or participate in Head Start or another comparable state-funded pre-kindergarten program.

In other business, the school board recognized Susan Foley, a volunteer at Southwest Guilford Elementary School, as the GCS Volunteer of the Month for June. Foley, who is responsible for practicing English language arts and math with students during small-group time, was credited with going to extra lengths to help teachers and students at the school in a nomination letter from third-grade teacher Kelly Hayworth.

Foley was presented with a $50 Visa gift card. During June, her photo will hang at the district's central offices and Southwest Guilford Elementary School.

The school board also voted to award a contract to Allied Roofing Company Inc. of Kernersville for a partial roof replacement project at High Point Central High School for $539,880.