In August, Governor Lamont announced an expansion of the Free School Meals Program. As I understand the program, it uses $16 Million of Federal COVID assistance dollars to provide 1) a free breakfast to all students and 2) a free lunch to students who qualify for reduced lunch status. This is not the same program as last year since not all students will receive a free lunch.
The district originally believed that we would lose close to $85,000 if we accepted these funds from the State. We did not feel that passing this loss to local taxpayers was fiscally responsible, so we had originally declined the funds. We needed to give an answer to the State by Friday, August 18.
However, given that our new Food Service Director just started on August 14, I requested that he contact the State for more guidance and confirmation of our calculations. After waiting a few days for the State to respond, our new Director just heard back today and learned that there were two conflicting distinct memos regarding reimbursement rates for Food Services. Mr. Molyneux was unaware of the reimbursement we would receive for paid students who take a free breakfast. With this latest information and increased clarity from the State, we calculated and confirmed with the State that Trumbull will at least break even if we accept the funds. Therefore, we contacted the State today and let them know that we will be accepting the funds.
If you are looking for information on Free/Reduced meals, you can find the information here.
You can find additional information about our Food Service program on our website.
You can find our 2023-2024 bus routes online. I want to thank our former Director of Transportation, Dawn Perkins, and our new Director of Transportation, Deena Robushi, for working together over the summer to develop the bus routes. Ms. Perkins had decades of experience developing these routes each year and we will miss her expertise. We are excited that Ms. Robushi has hit the ground running and we expect that she will not miss a beat. We ask for your patience during the first few days of school given the change of Directors.