Food Services Chartwells, Newton’s Food Service Management Company, has been making a solid transition to the district since starting on July 1, 2024, including creating a successful summer meal program for the ESY and Summer Success programs just three working days after they started. They continue to strengthen their inventory process, which has been the most significant challenge in the district. Newton North, the operational hub for both the largest high school, now twelve of the elementary schools, NECP, and the Ed Center, is not large enough to adequately coordinate the volume of food delivered multiple times each week. Chartwells has coordinated direct deliveries to Angier, Cabot, and Zervas, where there is storage capacity to create additional capacity at Newton North. They have also brought in their corporate operational team to lend their expertise for additional guidance, which is an added benefit to working with a global company. Newton is adding capacity at the elementary schools to ensure that we are adhering to USDA requirements for meal claiming and allergy management. This additional four-hour capacity on elementary full days is critical and will require additional support in the buildings to ensure consistent practice is in place. Governor Healy’s commitment to sustaining universally free meals for all students has been critical to program financial viability. The state component of the monthly reimbursement revenue is approximately 69%, without which Newton’s program would have to change significantly. The State’s ability to continue to support this program will be shaped by specific federal plans for the Child Nutrition Program, as well as indirect challenges from other federal changes. There could be additional impact to the Child Nutrition Program from a reduction in SNAP benefits to low-income families. Eligibility for SNAP benefits make a student categorically eligible for school-meal eligibility. A loss of SNAP eligibility would require a family to then apply for meal benefits. Many of our vulnerable families face significant challenges when required to apply - language, literacy, and access to technology barriers - which could significantly increase the State’s costs to support the u niversally-free program. Fee-Based Programs The School Committee has reviewed and approved fee increases for FY26 ahead of the budget season. This is the second year in a row of fee increases and the commitment on the School Committee’s part to find additional funding where possible. A total of $3.8 Million in fee revenue is projected to support the operating budget in FY26, an increase of $239K. Approximately $1.5 Million of fee revenue supports critical co-curricular and extracurricular activities for students, including fee revenue for high school athletics, high school drama, middle school activities, elementary instrumental lessons, and band. The remaining $2.3 million includes user-fee revenue for programs including yellow bus transportation, student parking, the elementary early morning program, and building rental income.
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