JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – For the past two years, legislation was passed to provide free meals to students to assist families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Keep Kids Fed Act has not been extended through next year, meaning families will now be paying for school lunches once again.

Jamestown Superintendent Dr. Rob Lech says an Ad Hoc Committee was formed including himself, some board members, and their Food Service director to discuss the existing process for alternative meals.

He added they’ll work on communicating better when balances drop below 0 and access to a la carte and larger meal requests. Dr. Lech says the board may need to budget for negative balances and strategize around and mitigate as best as possible.

Dr. Lech added that they are also working to get families signed up for free and reduced lunches.

He pointed out that the application for free and reduced lunches is very important to the district as far as funding goes.

In other information:

-Dr. Lech says as of July 14, they currently have 118 Kindergarten students with an additional 2 waiting for registration.

-The primary work is completed in the major facility projects at the Jamestown Middle School and Gussner Elementary. Some site work has been done at JHS, but the bulk of the work will begin with the arrival of the pre-fabricated metal building planned for early September.

-Two buses were picked up and currently located at the Jamestown High School. They will undergo annual bus inspection this month.

-Requests have been made for a second School Resource Officer to the City of Jamestown and Jamestown Police Department. Personnel and financial hurdles may slow this process for the district.

You can view the entire meeting below courtesy of Jamestown Video.