COEUR d’ALENE — Thanks to an improved economy, the percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced meals at Borah Elementary School and Venture High School dropped so much that it no longer made financial sense for the schools to continue to offer all students meals at no charge, said Coeur d’Alene School District director of nutrition services Ed Ducar at Monday night’s school board meeting.

The schools have historically had high percentages of students who qualified for meals at no charge under the Community Eligibility Provision program. However, the improved bottom lines for families at the schools meant that CEP would no longer reimburse the school district nearly as much as it had in years past. The school district would have to come up with $44,927.49 for the two schools to maintain the status quo during the 2018-19 school year, Ducar said.

In addition, breakfasts provided at no charge for all students at Winton Elementary School, Bryan Elementary School, Fernan STEM Academy, and Lakes Middle School under the Provision 2 Breakfast program would cost the district another $30,485.30 this year, Ducar said.

Superintendent Steve Cook said the drop in reimbursement rates was “a good problem. It’s an indicator that the economy is better.”

The school board unanimously approved ending the CEP program at Borah and Venture, and ending the Provision 2 Breakfast program at Winton, Bryan, Fernan, and Lakes. The meal programs at those schools will now match meal programs at other schools in the district, Ducar said.

Prior to the change, the minority of students at Borah and Venture who did not qualify for free or reduced meals had been given meals at no charge, said Ducar. Now co-payments for meals will be collected, he said.

Students who still qualify for free meals will continue to receive the meals at no charge. Students who qualify for reduced price meals will pay 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch, said Ducar. Other students will pay the same rates as students at other schools in the district, he added. Ducar said 156 students at Borah and 58 students at Venture fall into the paid meals category.

Board member Lisa May said she had heard positive feedback about the breakfast program at schools like Borah. “I would hate to see fewer kids eat breakfast at Borah because of a change in the program,” she said. Fellow board member Tom Hearn affirmed that his main concern was to keep kids in the district from going without meals.

Families at the affected schools will need to fill out applications to continue to qualify for free or reduced meals. Ducar said applications have been sent out to many families of the affected students, and that they will be available soon on the school district website, cdaschools.org.

Ducar said in addition to these two programs, his department utilizes other programs to provide access to healthy food for children. The district daily provides fruit and vegetables as healthy snacks for students, he said.

“Anything we can do on any of these programs to help these students, I’ll help them,” Ducar said.