Week of 1/17/11: Healthy schools highlights

Thompson schools’ free lunch program records spike

More students are in need of getting a quality lunch, according to the Colorado Department of Education’s 2010 free and reduced-cost lunch eligibility statistics released last week. Overall, students participating in the program grew in every district in Larimer County.

Read more in the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper.

17-year-old Rifle teen dies from flu

A 17-year-old Rifle High School student is the state’s first reported pediatric flu death, just as flu season swings into full gear. Austin Booth died last week.  He was a junior at Rifle High School, and played on the school’s basketball team. Watch the report on KDVR-TV.

.Jeffco Schools increases price for school meals

Starting on Feb. 7, parents in the state’s largest school district will have to pay a little more for the food served

in the cafeteria. Lunch will be bumped up by 50 cents, making lunch at Jefferson County elementary schools $2.50. Middle school and high school lunches will now cost $3.

Watch this 9News report.

Legislative panel blocks new funding for school-breakfast program

Poor children who eat breakfast at school for free will have to pay 30 cents a meal for the last few months of this school year after Republicans on the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee refused to provide additional funding for the growing program.

The Colorado Department of Education requested an additional $124,229 for the Start Smart Nutrition Program, which subsidizes the cost of breakfast at school for poor children, for the current budget year ending in June.

Read more in the Denver Post.

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First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.