By Lisa Wilcox
Special to the Aroostook Republican
NEW SWEDEN — On Wednesday, Aug. 29, New Sweden School will begin classes for the 2012-13 school year. At the New Sweden School Committee’s first meeting of the new academic year, held last week, two significant changes taking place at the school were the main focus of discussion.
After routine review of financial items and a quick look at the school policy handbook, the floor was opened to the public. Melanie Legasse, New Sweden School’s food services manager, explained the new dietary guidelines she will have to adhere to beginning this year after enactment of the Obama Administration’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.
The legislation requires that meals include more fruits and green vegetables, and whole grains, while restricting the amount of starches, sugars, salt and other food components considered to be unhealthy. There are also calorie restrictions based on the age of the students. Legasse advised the new guidelines would cost the school approximately 18 cents more per meal. The government will provide an additional six cents per meal to help make up for the cost, leaving a 12-cent per meal overall increase.
Legasse’s concern was not only over the new elevated cost, but whether the children would actually enjoy the healthier menu.
“There will be more food on their trays,” Legasse pointed out, “but the kids aren’t going to eat it. My biggest problem will be that I’ll be throwing a lot of food away.”
She also noted that the menu planning is more tedious. “A menu that used to take me an hour to prepare, now takes five hours,” she said.
New Sweden Principal Laurie Spooner offered to sit in on health education classes and explain the benefits of the nutritional guidelines to the students. She said that had worked in the past when it became necessary to remove chicken nuggets from the menu and add more whole grains. “After I was done,” she quipped, “I was sure they’d never eat another chicken nugget.”
Legasse mentioned she’d been giving some thought on ways the school could save money on food expenses. She suggested that perhaps Woodland and New Sweden could order food together and have it delivered to one place, potentially saving money by ordering larger quantities at a time and cutting back on delivery costs. She also advised that the annual harvest meal would not be possible this year because there is no way to absorb the cost.
School Union 122’s Interim Superintendent Roland Caron thanked Legasse for her observations and suggestions. “Every little bit helps,” he stated, and encouraged more cost-saving ideas.
After much discussion, the committee decided a five cent per meal increase would be necessary, bringing the price per meal up to $1.85. Committee Member Nancy Holmquist motioned to approve the increase. The motion was seconded by Committee Member Chris Hearn and the increase was unanimously approved.
Legasse plans to send out a memo to all students’ parents explaining the new guidelines and the price hike.
The Aug. 14 discussion then turned to the after-school care program that the school plans to introduce to the community this year. The program will provide care for students after their school day is over.
The opening of the after-school care program is in response to the community’s need to have a more convenient and accessible care provider for the children rather than having to bus them to an out-of-town provider while parents are at work. The program will be available to all students at the school from pre-K up. The care center will be located in an empty classroom with hours of operation from 11:30 a.m., after pre-K concludes for the day, to 5:30 p.m., to allow parents who work outside of New Sweden time to get out of work and pick up their children. The program will only be available on days that school is in session.
Committee Chairman Debbie Eustis-Grandy commented that the after-school care program has become necessary in order to avoid having more families send their children to neighboring community schools instead of New Sweden due to day-care issues. The committee estimated that approximately six children would be in the room at a time with one care provider. According to Daycare.com, provider-to-children ratio guidelines for the state of Maine are one provider per 10 children for ages 4 through 5 and one provider per 13 children for ages 5 and older.
Interim Superintendent Caron voiced his concern over having one employee stay at the school until 5:30 alone. Principal Spooner advised that the school would make sure there always was a second person available to stay at the school as a backup in case of emergency and for security reasons.
The cost of the program is estimated to be $90 per week for those requiring a full day of care, from 11:30 -5:30; $60 per week for those requiring care from 11:30-3:30, which is the end of the normal school day; and $40 per week for those only requiring care from 3:30-5:30. The committee determined these figures are in line with normal day-care costs.
The creation of this after-school care program also means that pre-K will now be in session five days a week, from 8-11:30 a.m., including lunch, instead of the previous four days a week.
After motions made by Holmquist and seconded by Hearn, the committee unanimously approved to begin pre-K five days a week and to authorize whatever steps are necessary to implement the after-school care program, including immediately beginning the process of hiring someone to work as the care attendant. More details will be made available to the community as the beginning of the school year approaches.
The committee then held a brief discussion about revisiting a plan to realign with Woodland schools and divide the grades between the two communities. Under the arrangement, Woodland and New Sweden students would attend Woodland School from grades 1-4 and then would attend New Sweden school from grades 5-8. Pre-K and kindergarten would still be held at both schools.
The issue has been discussed in the past and preliminary research indicates that around $200,000 per school year could be saved by making this change.
“The major roadblock to going ahead with this has been that everyone wants to have their own school with their own identity,” Caron commented.
The committee agreed to discuss the issue again and continue with research to determine its cost effectiveness.
The final official act was to elect a committee chairman. Eustis-Grandy was unanimously re-elected to another term.
An open house will be held for the upcoming school year on Tuesday, Aug. 28. Principal Spooner will be sending out a letter to parents to advise of the time and details of the sessions to be held at the open house.