Goshen County School District #1 adopts FY25 budget, approves districtwide free meals plan with $350,000 transfer to food service

The Goshen County School District #1 board voted to adopt its fiscal year 2025 budget after a presentation that highlighted delayed insurance proceeds and a planned districtwide free-meals program.

Marcy, the district staff member presenting the budget, told trustees the district expects roughly $1.1 million in insurance proceeds to shift into FY25 after reinsurance processing and projected a carryover around 10.09 percent. She also said the district has increased a planned transfer to the food-service fund from $50,000 to $350,000 to cover the startup cost of adopting the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which would provide free breakfast and lunch to all K–12 students using direct-certification data for up to four years. "That transfer of $350,000," Marcy said, "is tied to our direct certifications and those kids that are directly tied to a free status."

Why it matters: CEP can remove barriers families face in completing free-and-reduced applications and has in some districts raised participation; staff said higher participation can reduce the net general-fund cost because federal reimbursement dynamics change with participation levels. Mr. Krangert, who spoke in support, said free meals during COVID provided a major benefit to families and noted unpaid lunch balances in the district ("we have seen, I believe it was 25,000 in unpaid," he said).

Board members asked detailed questions about how "seconds" (full additional meals) would be handled under CEP. Marcy explained that second meals must be priced at adult rates because there is no reimbursement for seconds; she said paid-meal prices had been increased by 10¢ and noted $3.25 as a prior full paid-meal price when clarifying reimbursements. "That $5 is real close to our breakeven point," she said when discussing a proposed second-meal price.

Marcy cautioned that some packet figures were presented in the meeting transcript with inconsistent numeric strings; she framed the larger fiscal picture for trustees and emphasized that the $350,000 transfer represents a conservative, worst-case estimate if participation remains unchanged. The board adopted the FY25 budget as presented.

The board also approved related budget-line items discussed during the presentation, including revisions to special funds and capital-construction planning; staff said the capital fund includes work such as the TechEd building demolition. The board will revisit CEP outcomes and participation data after implementation to determine whether continued participation remains fiscally appropriate.