Saugus school board OKs meals cost boost, cuts some bus routes

SAUGUS – The Saugus School Committee voted on Thursday night to increase school meal costs and reduce the number of bus routes for the upcoming school year, as Superintendent Richard P. Langlois announced the completion of his district improvement plan.?I met with all the district leaders this week, the union management and all the different unions that will be impacted by this reduction ? and validated all of the tier reductions and how it will impact our district,” Langlois said. “I am prepared now to move forward with those reductions, and notifying the people by Monday, for the full $1.2 million reduction.”Langlois? plan calls for $1.2 million in reductions in three tiers. Tier one deals with peripheral school issues like busing and athletics, tier two deals with support staff and supplies and tier three focuses on teacher staffing.Langlois will present his plan at the School Committee meeting on June 23 at 5 p.m.?We?re going to be losing some quality people in this wave,” Langlois said. “It will disrupt the integrity of who we are and what we do as a public school system here in Saugus. It will obviously create a lot of anxiety and concern among the system, the parents and the students as they see people leave the district.”The meal price increase was approved to comply with the federally mandated “Equity in School Lunch Pricing” provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This provision seeks to reduce inequity in school lunch pricing by keeping regional school meal prices the same.Meals for grades K through 8 will increase from $2.25 to $2.35 while grades 7 through 12 will see increases from $2.50 to $2.60.?I want it to be clear that this is not budget-driven,” Committee Chairman Wendy Reed said. “This is in compliance with federal law.”The committee?s vote to reduce bus routes, however, was a part of Langlois? district improvement plan that will be presented at the June 23 meeting.Starting this fall, Saugus schools will only provide transportation for students at the state minimum of two miles or more for grades K through 6. As a part of tier one of the district improvement plan, this move will reduce transportation costs by $80,000.