Price of school breakfast, lunch to increase

To keep pace with rising costs of food, gas and labor, Simi Valley Unified School District will charge students more for breakfast and lunch next year.

The district will also charge families more for hometoschool transportation fees.

"We're trying to keep up with the costs," explained Lowell Schultze, associate superintendent of business and facilities, "and (these changes) probably won't even keep up with the costs. . . . We don't want to run into a hole and have the general fund support it."

The price of an individual lunch for an elementary school student will increase from $2 to $2.50 for the 2008-09 school year. The last increase in lunch prices at elementary schools in Simi was in 2003.

Simi Valley's change will put the district in line with neighboring school districts like Moorpark ($2.50), Conejo Valley ($2.75) and Las Virgenes ($3).

The increase is expected to generate $144,000 per year in additional revenue for SVUSD, Schultze said.

The district is also increasing breakfast prices for elementary, middle and high school students. Those prices will rise from $1 to $1.25 in elementary schools and from $1.25 to $1.50 for secondary school students. Breakfast prices haven't increased since 2001.

Elementary school breakfast prices are comparable to those in Moorpark ($1.25) and Conejo Valley ($1.75). Secondary school breakfast prices in Simi Valley are the same as Las Virgenes and Moorpark, while Conejo Valley has proposed increasing its price to $2. Breakfast price increases are expected to add $18,000 in revenue per year.

Transportation fees, the cost of riding the bus to school, will increase 15.8 percent across the board for 2008-09, a change that is expected to bring the district an additional $16,400.

The school board approved a 10 percent increase in transportation fees three years ago.

- Eliav Appelbaum