Perhaps the biggest news to come out of the regular Watonga School Board meeting Monday evening was that all students will receive free breakfasts and lunches for the next three years.
Those meals will be virtually the same as those served last year because the board also approved a contract renewal with Keystone, the food contractor used last year.
In addition to enjoying the food, students seemed to really like preordering their meals on the app.
The meals are being paid for through a USDA program called Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP for short, that is funneled to the schools through the Oklahoma State Department of Education, according to Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran.
The district applied to the state for funding by forwarding the numbers on students in the district who are economically disadvantaged. By using the district numbers as a whole, it eliminates the need for household applications for free or reduced meals each year.
“Mrs. Coney did a great job of collecting this information and forwarding it to the state department of education to coordinate this for our kids,” Hilterbran said.
Studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between nutrition and the ability to concentrate and learn.
“Overall, our job is to educate the kids, but when kids come into the classroom and they aren’t hungry, they perform better,” Hilterbran added.
One district parent who asked not to be identified said, “This means for the next three years, that’s one more stress taken off my plate.” They have a child in elementary school and another in high school and are still working to clear the leftover lunch debt from last school year.
Other business accomplished by the board during the meeting included the approval of tear down for some surplus buildings in Watonga.
Those include the cafeteria, band room, alternative learning center and board office at the old middle school on Noble Avenue. Plans are to enclose the rear of the building with security fencing to facilitate using the former technology building – which has overhead rollup doors – for storage for items such as mowers and perhaps vehicles from time to time.
Another development at the schools is the addition of flight training as a gateway into aviation education and as a career path. The district won a grant to install a flight simulator and Steve Lake, an area pilot who will teach the classes for two hours per day, will provide a second simulator so that more students can gain experience through the program.
Aviation has been identified as one of the fastest growing industries and labor markets in Oklahoma.