Food changes ahead — In search of food the kids will eat, NMS and NHS to leave federal lunch program
Mary Stroka
NLJ Reporter
Beginning in the fall, the Newcastle Middle School and Newcastle High School food service programs will be free of federal oversight, which will allow for more freedom in the kind of food offered to students, according to Superintendent Brad LaCroix.
Weston County School District No. 1 trustees unanimously voted at the April 30 board meeting to follow LaCroix’s recommendation that the district stop participating in the federal lunch program for the 2025-26 school year for grades 6 through 12.
Prior to making his recommendation, LaCroix told the board the amount of money required to make the change would be $100,000, and no further discussion was held before the vote was taken. Later in the meeting, however, Board Chair Dana Mann-Tavegia said that she had forgotten to note that the district annually has used up to $150,000 from the general fund to supplement existing food service. Business
manager Angela Holliday confirmed, noting that as of March 31, the district’s general fund has supplemented the food service account by $105,950 to cover wages for the 2024-25 school year.
While the issue drew limited discussion at the April 30 meeting, school officials discussed it at the Sept. 11, 2024 board meeting, and revealed that the district spends roughly $500,000 each year on its food services. The district is only reimbursed by the federal government for about $185,000.
LaCroix told the NLJ that for years, people have shared concerns that students, especially those in middle and high school, are not receiving sufficient meals, both in quality
and quantity.
Two years ago, the district received beef donations, and people believed that the food quality would improve, even if the portions wouldn’t, he said. However, the beef was never applied to the lunch program.
“The frustration in the community got even higher,” he said.
Denise Anderson, the current food service director, intends to resign effective at the end of the school year, and the board has authorized LaCroix to post the position. There is hope that as part of a transition to a new food service director, the district will be able to revamp the lunch program into an a la carte, unregulated program that offers a caliber of quality and portions that will encourage students to stay on campus, LaCroix said. Students in eighth through 12th grades have “open campus” and are allowed to leave school grounds for lunch, but more may elect to stay on campus if the meal quality improves.
LaCroix said two benefits of students staying on campus is an increase in safety and in parents’ savings. Students enjoy certain foods, and the federally regulated school lunch program demands that students select other foods, which leads to a lot of waste, he said.
“This will give them more freedom of choice and hopefully cut down waste as well,” he said.
LaCroix expects the cost for the lunch program to be somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000, but other districts have told WCSD #1 officials that if the district orders foods that are popular with students, it is possible to even make money.
“But we don’t know that until we try it on,” LaCroix acknowledged.
Mann-Tavegia had told the NLJ on Sept. 16 that the board would hold a town hall once it had all the information it believed it needed to make a transition, but before the board would vote “on any change.” LaCroix told the NLJ on May 5 that the district had not held a town hall regarding food service, but said Anderson’s pending resignation moved up the time table for making the change.
LaCroix explained that the district was planning to further investigate the merits of leaving the federal program, but after learning of Anderson’s resignation, he recommended that they hire a director with a clear plan regarding the district’s participation in the federal program, which will now exist only in the elementary school.
He’s not sure whether it will be easier for the district to find a food service director with the upcoming change, but he hopes that the position will become more attractive.
“When I came here 32 years ago, Osage had one of the goldarnedest school lunch programs in the world, and I hope we can repeat that with the cinnamon rolls of the size of your plate, and you can smell it for three blocks,” he said.
If the change at the middle school and high school levels proves to be successful, Newcastle Elementary School will also exit the federal program, LaCroix said.
School shorts
Notes from the April 1, 2025, meeting of the Weston County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees
At the next board meeting on May 12, trustees will discuss whether to move the Newcastle Middle School girls wrestling season to start after Christmas break so that girls can be on both the basketball and wrestling teams. With the change, the girls wrestling season would match that of nearly all other northeast Wyoming schools’ seasons, according to NMS activities director Carrie Murphy.
Anika Oleson, a Newcastle High School freshman, won the seventh-grade to ninth-grade division of the Wyoming Department of Health’s radon-related health risks awareness campaign poster contest, Newcastle High School Principal Bryce Hoffman said. All the winning entries can be seen at health.wyo.gov/publichealth/cancer-and-chronic-disease-prevention-unit/cancer/radonpostercontest/.
Superintendent Brad LaCroix recommended that the Recreation Board not increase spending on the extra-duty contract for the pool manager because the funding that the rec mill is expected to generate is decreasing. Future discussions at the rec board meeting and the school board, respectively, will include how to handle the cost of maintenance emergencies during off-hours and whether the district should adopt another gun policy considering the new state law, according to LaCroix.