Geneva D-304 lunch costs to increase in 2022-23

GENEVA – School lunches in Geneva District 304 will cost a little more in the 2022-23 school year. The school board approved recommended increases April 11.

Elementary lunches will increase to $2.50 from $2.25, middle school lunches will increase to $2.90 from $2.50 and high school lunches will increase to $3 from $2.50.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Todd Latham said the Geneva district offers one of the lowest-costing school lunches in Kane County.

“We have not increased our food prices for quite some time,” Latham said in his recommendation to the school board. “We offered free food for the last two years and are unable to do that any more because of wage increases and the cost of staff to provide those.”

The increase in school lunch costs were part of updating the district’s student fees.

“We do review student fees annually at this time of year and we try to keep things as affordable as possible and not make changes – if possible,” Superintendent Kent Mutchler said. “If we do, then it’s only minor changes that we would request of the board.”

Latham said they look at all fees at all levels and the only notable change other than lunch is in elementary fees due to increased vendor costs.

“It was minimal. Only a dollar increase over the prior year,” Latham said. “Almost all the elementary fees have remained the same.”

At North and South middle schools, music shirts have gone up to $16 from $12, Latham said.

STEM camp went up to $80 from $75 to cover the cost of that program, he said.

Athletic fees at the middle schools increased. Football went up to $150 from $131 and cross country went up to $100 from $90, he said.

Small fees, such as for novels, depend on what the English department chooses for the students to read, Latham said.

At the high school level, fees remained the same except for some increases in course fees, he said.

“Those reflect the current market costs for those consumables,” Latham said.