Over the past three years, it has been 50 cents or less per meal. Uh in other words, that is how much we get per meal per student for breakfast. And those two years where we uh where we got that funding, it was up upwards of almost $2.50 a meal. At the time when the USDA stopped funding free breakfast for students, HCCSC food services had a relative surplus of funds from the higher federal reimbursement rates during the pandemic. The decision was made to utilize these funds to continue offering breakfast to students in our schools at no cost as long as those funds were available. This surplus is now depleted and to continue to fund free breakfast will soon be detrimental to the program. Next slide, please. Increasing food and supply price challenges uh challenging schools to maintain the quality of meals provided to students while staying within budget constraints.
As the cost of food increases, without increased funding, it becomes impossible to improve the quality of food we serve to children. Regular maintenance and appropriate replacement of kitchen equipment is also essential to ensure efficient meal preparation and to avoid unexpected breakdowns. The cost of this has skyrocketed over the past five years, as it has in almost every industry, as I'm sure you are all aware. to give you an example of a typical piece of equipment that we use. A steamer that cost $9,000 in the year 2020 now cost $22,000. Looking to the future of funding, while several groups across the country continue to lobby at the state and federal level for increased funding for school meals and even for universal free meal programs, there does not appear to be any legitimate traction at the federal or local state level to offer this support. In the meantime, it is up to each uh local school corporation's food service department to properly fund these programs.
I will say it has been a blessing to be able to offer free breakfast for students for the past five years. I hope that this helps kind of paint a picture of how we've been able to do so and gives you a better detail in the thought behind the proposed meal prices. So, I thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Mr. Burgess. I appreciate the efforts that you're making with the on the food service side. I know that it's a challenge and um we know how important it is to make sure kids have something to eat because some kids don't when they're not at school. Absolutely. So, we really appreciate those efforts.
Anybody have any questions before we I would entertain a motion uh reference his request. Motion to approve the universal free breakfast and meal prices as presented. Thank you, Mr. Meltchure. Is there anyone second? Thank you, M. Mcclullen.
any discussion or conversation before we vote. How many students did we uh serve breakfast to the last couple years? Last year uh let's see, we served 304,978 breakfasts for the entire year. For the entire year. So, as far as um with the amount of uh revenue that we did not receive for serving the full pay and reduced price meal students, that means that we basically out of our funds paid for $186,000 of that. And over the last three years, that comes to $572,000 out of food service funds. Cool. Do you know on an average though how many students in the corporation took that took took that? 300,000 over the whole year. Do you know on a daily basis? How many students actually took care of that? Oh, on a daily basis. Um I could do the math for you. Just just if you had it, great.
If not, that's fine. But but gut feeling good majority of the students took advantage of it. Um it's the participation went up significantly when it became free. Okay. It definitely made a difference, but it wasn't. So compare that to breakfast versus lunch. Then you see a drop then a number of students providing school lunches then yes we do. Do you know on average from a lunch standpoint what that percentage is? Um I would say probably uh kids that participate in the lunch program probably about a 20% less okay participation currently right and then back when 2020 2021 when it was free both breakfast and lunch we saw great participation then correct it was yes absolutely anything further good questions Mr. Thank you. We have nothing further then we'll go ahead and vote on your request. Motion passes 70. Move on to D2, food services request for vendor approval.
That's me again. Hello again. Uh this is about our awards for vendors for school year 2526. Uh they are all the same as they are this year and have been last year. Uh they're all great vendors that have great reputations and uh great customer service as well. Uh we work with a cooperative called Food to School. Uh they're a purchasing cooperative. They consist of 97 school districts and have a projected annual sales volume of over $69 million next year and serve the needs of over 230,000 students which gives us great buying power uh with their negotiations. The following vendors will be renewed with HCCS for the 2526 school year. Uh milk and dairy will be DFA dairy brands uh formerly Dean Shankles. Uh the group purchasing organizations HPS Gordon's food service and commercial foods and chemicals we use smart systems which has been a great company in our uh district not just for pricing but also for their customer service and their help with our equipment.
Thank you Mr. Burgess. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion reference this item. motion to recommend approval. Thank you, Mrs. Miller. Can I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Wall.
Any questions or discussion for Mr. Burgess? Hearing none, we'll vote on the motion. Motion passes 70. Thank you, Mr. Burgess, very much. Thank you. Moving on to D3, EL program for the 2025 2026 school year. We have over the years brought before you uh to present some very very talented and skilled teachers, administrators, and coordinators. And tonight is no exception. Um as Angie Grub, our director of EEL and our EEL coordinator for the district is going to be presenting a snapshot for you of our state of our current state of our EL program and a projected growth of our program uh for 2526. So Angie, thank you for being here and sharing with us. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um, tonight I come to you to talk to you about something very dear to my heart, the English learner program. I've been blessed to be in Huntington Schools for a large number of years.
Um, but a bigger blessing for me is the opportunity to work with these students and these families. So, I just want to give you a little bit of information about the English learner program in case you don't know a whole lot about that. Um, in the fall of 2016, HCCS began servicing English learners with one ELEL teacher of record. And at that time, we had about 10 students. If you would go, sorry. Um, in the fall of 2020, HCCS created the ENL classes at Crestview, Riverview, and Huntington North. Um, there was a dedicated EL teacher of record at each of those schools, and I was blessed to be that teacher here at Crest View. Um, in the fall of 2022, Crest View became the middle school hub due to rising enrollment. Um, all of the English learners and the at the middle school level were brought here to Crest View where I was again blessed to be able to be their teacher.
Um, and I actually had the opportunity this Sunday to present that first group of students that I was their um, main teacher with diplomas at graduation. So, that was a special event for me. In the fall of 2023, the EL teacher of records split her time um between teaching and coordinating the program. That was me. That was tricky. Um but it was something that I was very driven to do and wanted to do and wanted to do well. And when I took on that additional role of being the coordinator, I wanted to make sure that that program was being serviced the best way that it could. Um I at that time had two amazing elementary um teachers who were servicing students at the elementary level. Myself at Crest View and then a teacher at the high school. In the fall of 2024 um with the help of two English teachers at Huntington North, two EL specific English classes were started at Huntington North.
That has been a huge blessing. It gives us an opportunity to um allow the students to do additional things that they may not get to do because of the service class that they're required to have um that we're required to provide for them. Uh and then my position became a full-time position. I stepped away from the classroom which was difficult at first and it's still difficult at times for me but it allowed the teacher here at Crest View to be fully dedicated to the students and offer them everything they could during the school day and it gave me the opportunity to start working on some things that I really wanted to do for the English learner program. If you would go to the next slide please. Um this is just a few of the things that we have done since um I've been able to dedicate more time to being the coordinator.
Uh we started an adult English class. Um many parents attend that. We had 23 people sign up to attend. We had 12 attend regularly and uh the people that you saw earlier were great supports for that program. We have EL family nights. Um we used to have four a year. We are up to having one almost every night. And though the attendance at those has doubled uh where we have many families coming and engaging, interacting with each other. Um the kids, we provide information to the parents, the teachers uh take care of planning activities for the students to do and it just is a great time and it's a good way for us to connect and pour into those families and help make sure that they're getting everything that they can um as part of our Huntington Schools family. And then we also this year with the help of Annette Little started some extracurricularcurricular exploration experiences.
We took the boys and the girls to soccer games. Um the girls had to go to a volleyball game because their soccer game got cancelled, but we took the boys to a soccer game. Um an EL student from the high school actually played on the team and he autographed soccer balls for all the boys. It was a great experience. It was so it was great for him. It was great for the boys. We went to basketball games. Brandy Hawkins here at Crest View was amazing. Um, since they'll be future Cougars one day, we brought them all here. We had shirts for them and Brandy had them come out on the floor and they got to do lineups with uh as the kids were announced, the starting five. And so that was a very special opportunity for them. So, this program means a lot to me and I want to continue to do what's best for this program.
And so that's what I'm going to talk to you about now. If you would go ahead and go to the next slide. So our growth has continued to increase. As you can see, we had a drop off in 2022 2023. Um but our growth has been steady at the K5 level. Um we are projected to have 70 students uh K5 in the fall of 2526 and that's a huge number of students. Each one each one of those students, we are required to offer 120 minutes of service per week. And we currently have two elementary EL teachers to offer that service to the six schools. We have at least one student at every one of our elementary schools that qualify as an English learner. If you would go to the next slide, please. You can see here our projected enrollment for next year. At Flint Springs, we're projected to have 15 students.
Lincoln 32, Ron Oak one, Horseman 14, Andrews 2, and Salimony six. So those are our projected numbers. If we were going to service our students, which is always our goal, um the projected number of minutes they need just at Lincoln alone, that would require 3,840 minutes of service um for the 2526 school year. And so as you look at all of the different schools, having two teachers to be able to do that is a bit of an impossible task in my opinion. Um we've been making it work, but I don't know that we can make it work for much longer with what those kids deserve. If you would go to the next slide, please. Um this is just a breakdown of on a weekly basis, a monthly basis, but the one that hits me the hardest is the yearly basis. on a yearly basis because of transfer driving that we need to do to get to the different schools.
We are losing 91 hours of instructional time. And that's a lot of time for these students who are not only um operating in another language and trying to learn English, but just who need that extra additional support. And our teachers in the classrooms, our general education teachers do an amazing job with these students. But it is our job as the English learner program to ensure that they're getting the support that they need additionally in their service minutes. And so um that's a lot of time for us to to lose. If you go to the next slide, please. So I think that we can do better for our students. We are do an amazing job here. I am very proud to lead this program. I um I have great teachers working every day. We have good relationships with the principles, with the school staff, with all of the that are pouring into these kids.
But I think we can do do better. Um, we are proposing a change in how we service the elementary English learner students who are enrolled in HCCS. Uh, we believe that these changes would be very beneficial if they are implemented for this upcoming school year. It would eliminate the loss of instructional time because we would no longer need to travel between schools. Um, it would shore up the case loads. The state of Indiana suggests that a case load for an English learner teacher is 30 students. And so currently both of my EL elementary teachers would be over their case load numbers. Um it would heighten our family engagement and that's a huge piece for me. Um these families come and they stay. I have a friend who's a director in southern Indiana and she has a lot of movement in and out of her programming.
And she's like, "How do you deal with this?" And I said, "That just doesn't happen here." And they come and they stay. And in fact, they tell their relatives, "Oh, no, come here. They take good care of us. They love our kids. They help us with other things besides just school." And that's very important to me. Um, the attendance, like I said, at our family nights has doubled since last year. And I I want these families to stay engaged, but I want to do even better for them. If you would go to the next slide. Thank you. So the uh my proposal is is that we create an English learner hub and I am suggesting that that be done at Lincoln Elementary. Um all of our schools, all of our elementaryaries are outstanding and they have done amazing jobs with our students, but we already have 32 students who would be enrolled at Lincoln in the fall.
Mrs. Jerger and I have worked uh for quite a while on making sure numbers would be within guidelines. Uh we've done research. This isn't something that we just got together one day and said, "Oh, what do you think about this?" It's been something we've been working on for a while. Um so it has been thought through and is something, like I said, that I've really wanted to see happen because I know it's what's best for kids. Um we could increase the support for our students. family engagement would increase. Um we could enroll families easier and and without a lot of hassle to them. There would be increased opportunities for professional development. Um increased opportunities for teacher support collaboration. Um the list goes on and on. And Lincoln was um chosen like I said because of the 32 students but also it is a feeder school to Crestview.