School District 1 pays more money for summer food program

Sheridan County School District 1 normally budgets around $11,000 to $12,000 for the district’s summer food program.

This year, according to District 1 Superintendent Pete Kilbride, the food program cost significantly more. Kilbride said the program is funded through the federal summer food program.

He said that led to an amendment in the district’s 2020 budget, which trustees approved in a meeting earlier this week, that moved between $95,000 and $98,000 into that program.

He said the district fed a lot more students this summer than in past years because of COVID-19.

Kilbride said typically the summer food program is only set up in Ranchester, but this year, the federal regulations allowed expansion of the program. As a result, meals were provided all summer long to students in the Big Horn and Parkman areas as well.

Kilbride said the COVID-19 situation also allowed the district to pay off a bus lease a year early. He said that was because the district wasn’t transporting students on activity and field trips. The money the district normally would use on transportation costs was available to pay off the lease.