BERNE — Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s school meal prices will increase 10 cents for the 2017-18 school year, but school board members with children in the district say that quality has not increased with price.

Although the school board voted unanimously to increase the cost, some members did so begrudgingly. Breakfast in both schools went from $1.60 to $1.70; lunches at the elementary school went from $2.60 to $2.70; and at the secondary school from $2.70 to $2.80.

Board member Kim Lovell said she observed the same meals being served each week, and that she was concerned that options that are always available like pizza will be constantly selected by children.

“The problem is, I think, we’re held to certain regulations,” said board President Matthew Tedeschi. “It doesn’t allow for creativity.”

At the meeting, board Vice President Nathan Elble said that it was possible to do so, noting other schools had improved their menu options in places like West Virginia.

Elble, who was elected to a second term in May, had said before the last election that he was concerned about school lunch options such as offering yogurt and hard rolls in lieu of the main entrée.

Board member Lilliam Sisson-Chrysler said that, as a “graduate of the food-services industry,” she agreed with Elble.

“You can use the ingredients we have and make tasty food,” she said.

The board voted to authorize the price increase, but also voted to request district Superintendent Timothy Mundell to investigate food quality in school meals.

The price increase is determined by a “Paid Lunch Equity” price calculator provided by the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, said BKW Food Service Director Deborah Rosko. This must be calculated yearly, she said.

According to Rosko, the BKW price is determined by the price of free student meals that the federal government reimburses. BKW has about 40 percent of its students enrolled in the free or reduced-price lunch program.

If the price increases for these government-funded meals each year, so will the prices for lunches sold by the school. The school’s prices increased by 10 cents for the 2016-17 school year and the 2015-16 school year; the price did not increase for the 2014-15 school year, said Rosko.

She hopes that the prices will not increase after a few years, but says the district will have to catch up to the increased federal meal prices.

“We are pretty far behind,” she said.

Cost of school meals are mainly influenced by the cost of food itself and labor cost,  as well as how frequently students buy meals, said Rosko. With federal regulations established in the past few years requiring schools to serve food such as 100-percent whole-grain carbohydrates and a wider variety of vegetables, sales dropped. Rosko described it as a “learning curve” for students; their desire to purchase whole grain snacks on the à la carte menu decreased, and they were less likely to purchase meals with new types of vegetables they were not as used to.

“It wasn’t one big change over time — it was phased in,” said Rosko. “And it’s still being phased.”

The main source of Obama-era regulations is the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which included new national standards on the allowable amounts of sodium, fats, and sugar in meals. Rosko said the requirements meant there are fewer choices of what to offer students and restrictions on the preferred foods of students.

“It’s good for students, though,” she said. “It’s just a matter for changing the way they perceive the food...I think that we will gain some ground.”

She noted that the BKW menu is being constantly changed, using students’ ideas and what they choose at lunch, as well as trying different options to see how the students react.

However, even if sales eventually increase, the cost of the food is also higher. Rosko said she is not sure why whole-grain products cost more than their processed counterparts, but imagines it is in part due to supply-and-demand principles.

BKW chooses vendors on a cooperative bid; such vendors include Sysco, Ginsberg’s Foods, U.S. Foods, and Freihofer’s, said Rosko. Because of this method, smaller local vendors may be out-bid. Rosko says BKW has tried to use local companies, such as Terrace Mountain Orchard in Schoharie to get apples, but often finds that local vendors can’t deliver food themselves.

Rosko said that the cafeteria would use any products offered from the school’s community garden, but noted that most would be harvested during the summer rather than during the school year.

“I don’t believe they would provide us with produce on a yearly basis,” she said. “The crops come in August.”

BKW meals are served in a five-week cycle, with some more preferred choices repeated more often, said Rosko, such as chicken nuggets or pizza.

“I think we definitely have choices and variety offered,” she said.

Rosko said that alternatives to the main entrée in the elementary school include pizza, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, and a dairy option like yogurt or string cheese served with a bread option along with the usual sides like fruit and a drink.

“Basically a deconstructed grilled-cheese sandwich,” she noted, adding that elementary students often prefer snack-like options in their meals.

In the secondary school, alternatives include mozzarella sticks, chicken patties on a roll, chicken nuggets, hamburgers or cheeseburgers, as well as alternative sides to an entrée like tossed salad or soup.

Rosko also said that there are a variety of choices in the school breakfast program, including bagels, bagels with egg and cheese, muffins, and pancakes.

Some of the Obama-era regulations may be reduced under the Trump administration in the federal government. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, who was sworn in this April, unveiled new flexibilities in the school lunch regulations. Schools no longer have to meet the next target of decreasing sodium levels, instead staying with the initial 2014 target. The United States Department of Agriculture, which oversees the school-lunch program, will also seek to change regulations in school milk to allow 1-percent flavored milk, and will let states grant exemptions to schools to not have to serve 100 percent whole-grain carbohydrates. However, these exemptions were allowed the year prior as well.

According to the New York State Department of Education, 192 schools requested a waiver to serve whole-grain rich pasta in the 2015-16 school year, and 137 in the 2016-17 school year — including the East Greenbush and Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk school districts. However, schools receiving exemptions are required to ensure that at least half of all products are whole-grain rich.

Rosko said that the rollback on sodium requirements was partly due to manufacturers of products being unable to adapt the ingredients to meet those requirements.

“We’re still actually actively working towards those goals, though,” she said.

She said that BKW students are used to drinking non-fat flavored milk at this point, even though low-fat flavored is now permitted.

“It really does not affect Berne-Knox-Westerlo,” she said. “Although, if we wanted to, we could purchase the milk.”

Other business

In addition, the BKW board also:

— Heard from Carey Raymond, a special-education teacher in the elementary school, third-grade teacher William Dergosits, and elementary school teaching assistant Sarah McArdle about a successful first run of a summer STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) Camp. Sixty-six students enrolled in the two week-long sessions that let students conduct projects such as building roller coasters and bat houses;

— Heard from Board of Cooperative Educational Services communications specialist Bill DeVoe about upcoming system Blackboard Connect, which will replace the current School News Notifier system and offer a variety of mediums to communicate through (parents will not have to re-register, but other community members will); and

— Heard from Mundell on the state-required English and math regents scores from BKW: proficiency in English went from 29 percent last year up to 35 percent and in math, proficiency went down from 39 percent last year to 37 percent, with very low participation in grades 7 to 8 to do test opt-outs or students taking different math assessments. The statewide proficiency rate is  about 40 percent in both subjects.

Mundell warned that new state standards would be correlated with tests by 2022, which could give a rational to opt out of current tests.

“We have a 20 percent opt-out rate,” said Mundell. “That’s down from 40 percent in 2015.”