Administrators report grant spending, enrollment and data reconciliations as budget work continues

District administrators provided multiple operational updates, emphasizing grant spending levels, meal participation gains and ongoing work to reconcile student enrollment data ahead of final budget adoption.

The food service report showed breakfast participation up about 7.5% and lunch participation up about 8% compared with the prior reference period; the HMI (healthy meals) grant spending target was set at 50% by the end of January, but administrators reported approximately 81.31% of that grant already expended. Staff credited the grant for covering training and a new salad bar installation at Grand Street, and described an upcoming full‑day training at the Culinary Institute of Child Nutrition funded by the HMI grant.

Administrators also said they are reconciling student records after the Acuity platform pilot imported inactive students; they are marking inactive accounts to avoid inflated counts and corrected a 504 count in the meeting record (from 31 to 33). The district has begun drafting the FY26 budget but said it cannot finalize subsidy estimates because the state Form 279 has not yet been published.

The board was also notified the district received a $5,000 literacy grant from the state DOE and that a Workforce Opportunity in Rural Communities grant will fund a posted coordinator position and provides opportunities for student job training and transportation support.

On cybersecurity, administrators said PowerSchool reported that Millinocket's data did not appear in a national breach; district IT (Jared) is reviewing systems and maintaining security monitoring.

Why it matters: Grant timelines and state subsidy notices affect budget assumptions and program delivery; data reconciliation ensures funding and services match enrolled students.