BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Anne Arundel students will have to pay more for breakfast and lunch in the upcoming school year due to inflation and rising gas prices, school officials said.

The school board’s decision to approve Superintendent Kevin Maxwell’s recommendation for higher meal fees will not overcome a pending $1 million deficit, Jodi Risse, the school system’s supervisor for food and nutrition, said this week.

Projected local and state food sale revenue for fiscal 2009 is $22.6 million; but, expenses, including salaries, food and supplies, could total $23.6 million, she said.

In 2008, for example, the food and nutrition department is expected to spend $7.8 million on food. Next year, $8.1 million could be spent.

The department’s expenses continue to increase due to the current economic situation, inflation and the changes in the food industry in regard to biofuel, grain and fuel pricing, officials said. In turn, school officials say they needed to increase student meal prices.

The department is serving more than 1.5 million breakfasts and 5.2 million lunches a year, Risse said. However, the higher fees could mean 3 percent fewer students buying meals next year, school officials said.

Officials are trying to combat this reduction by offering more fruits and vegetables and increasing whole grain products. Some school board members wanted to know what steps the school system was taking to encourage students to purchase meals.

“One of the main reasons we hear for students not wanting to purchase lunch are the long lines,” said board member Patricia Nalley.

Risse said elementary schools, where most students buy lunch, serve about 75 students in 10 minutes. A way to move students through the lines quicker was to provide fewer food selections each day.

Board member Eugene Peterson said he was concerned about low-income students not affording meals, but officials said reduced lunch and breakfast prices wouldn’t change.

“If we see kids without any money or lunch, we try to get them the [free and reduced meal] application,” Risse said.

Lunch fees have not increased in three years and breakfast fees in four years.

Comments from Examiner Readers

2:46 PM MST on Thu., May. 8, 2008 re: "School meal prices increased in Anne Arundel"

Examiner Reader said:
I never could understand this school breakfast program for children. Fixing your child's breakfast is part of parenting. I do not know of anyone--friends, relatives or neighbors--who do not consider breakfast a mandatory meal before their children leave for school in the morning. People who can not or will not tend to their children properly should be sterilized immediately.

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8:07 AM MST on Thu., May. 8, 2008 re: "School meal prices increased in Anne Arundel"

Examiner Reader said:
you did not give any $figures as to what the lunch/breakfast cost is now and what it will be...

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1:07 PM MST on Wed., May. 7, 2008 re: "Glen Burnie school reuses other designs to save money"

AA County taxpayer said:
This makes a lot of sense. Apparently the same was not done when it came to the design of the so-called Gambrills area school (which is actually located in Crofton). According to an article in Suburban Scene, the new principal of this school was even given license with the design! The Crofton parents seem to be a very privileged group with a lot of political pull. We really need an elected school board in Anne Arundel County!

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7:59 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 29, 2008 re: "Students recognized for skills in Russian"

Elite reporter(!) said:
It is easy to write stories about broadneck or severna park! a second grader can even do that. Why don't you go to meade middle, or lindale or meade high? then you would have to write series of articles about the police being called to school everyday(!)But then bob would be unhappy with you!

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6:44 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 24, 2008 re: "Educators: Extra seats aren�t extra space"

Say, Yes said:
Is Josh fired? If so, I will become a subscriber for the paper.

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9:43 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 19, 2008 re: "School officials may not fill teaching spots"

blank said:
edit his articles all the time... examiner should hire a person for this job. maybe mosier can do it for him. were they getting checks from the same account?

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6:35 AM MST on Fri., Apr. 18, 2008 re: "Anne Arundel Redistricting plan finalized by school board"

Examiner Reader said:
"nearly completion" edit, edit, edit...back to school for you. Elswise, good article.

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4:08 AM MST on Fri., Apr. 18, 2008 re: "School enrollment count muddied by transfer students"

Examiner Reader said:
Teacher Unions are to strong. They are masters at pointing the finger of blame at everyone else. Sorta like a kid. It is the Principals fault ( get rid of them), parents fault ( they need to give us better kids, societies fault ( you are not paying me enough). It is time to ban teacher unions like other states do. Teacher unions are to powerful and advocate only for teachers and not students or parents or tax payers.

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9:11 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008 re: "County to extend school day next year"

Examiner Reader said:
I'm am appauled by the comments of "A Parent - Disagrees..." I am not a teacher, but I do work in 2 elementary schools. My mother was a teacher, my girlfriend is a teacher and her mother is a teacher. I see these people getting paid very little for 37.5 hours and putting in over 55 hours a week. They even buy materials out of pocket to teach their students because the school system doesn't have the money to provide the materials they need to do a good job. The majority of teachers are caring people trying to teach our children without much help from parents. They are under-appreciated and paid next to nothing. And as far as teachers looking out for themselves, who else will? Apparently nobody.

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6:23 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008 re: "County to extend school day next year"

Examiner Reader said:
You can always depend on the taecher's union to look out for themselves, not the students! Congrats to Maxwell for taking them on.

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6:06 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008 re: "County to extend school day next year"

Examiner Reader said:
Give me a break! school teachers can't even get a pay raise and they want them to work longer, I would tell them to pound sand. I think all schools should go year round, and everyone wear uniforms.

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8:57 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

This is sick... said:
Give me a break. This past poster was completely wrong. No school anywhere is going to provide an education if your child is suffering from parental neglect. Perhaps this should be educational neglect, at least at home. As someone who had little parental support myself for school, I had to learn to literally teach myself how to study and learn. This can be difficult if your parent or parents do help in fostering a learning environment. Not all parents are bad and do help their children learn good study habits. Unfortunately they seem to be in the minority. I just think that parents need to change and help their children learn and instill study skills for successful learning achievements.

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8:46 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

A Parent - Disagrees... said:
I disagree with the previous poster. While education is problematic in today's society, parents are not to blame. In fact I think its the lazy teacher's fault. They work fewer hours, get summers off, and usually just sit in a chair all day. Then they want benefits and pay for it. What a joke. Teachers are poor motivators and its all their fault that kids are simply not learning these days. As a parent myself, I feel that teachers should be given more work, more over hours, and less pay. They get far too much pay for being so lazy all the time. I think this teacher in the article was simply playing games because he or she simply was too lazy and bored. This is a symptom of teacher ineptness and absolute laziness. The teacher probably called the police to get away from the boredom from laziness. The children might even be making threats just to relieve their boredom from their lazy, inept teachers.

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8:36 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Parents are part of the education problem... said:
Ok this might be a little off topic...This case really shows one problem with educational problems today. Parents today seem to think that it is okay to no guide their children in learning or doing homework. Often their children do not do homework, have poor grades, and often display very offensive behaviors. They parents seem to rarely discipline or hold their children accountable for their education. Instead they scream at their children's teachers if they dare to fail their children when they do no homework or fail at the tests. Why is this? They blame teachers, the school, school systems, even the federal government. Anything but their own poor parenting skills. Kids today are not given any support outside of school. Its like parents want a school to effectively raise their kids for them. They are many reasons for educational failure. Parents can go along way towards helping eliminating themselves as part of the problem.

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8:21 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Another past incident at CSP.... said:
Sorry...The actual date was 3/30/2006 not 3/30/1996.

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8:20 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Another past incident at CSP.... said:
According to an article in the Washington Post on 3/30/1996, reveals that police cars arrived at the school and arrested the then principal of CSP. According to the articles, teachers were being harassed, the facilities were unkempt, and students had spotty attendance. Apparently the only 3 female teachers were harrased and discriminated against by the male teaching staff. The then principal was described as inept in his duties by investigators. The CSP officials claimed AACS was discriminating against them and were prejudiced against the founders. The article also states that it allegedly took 3 days to clean the school. See article : County Takes Over Charter School on the Washington Post website

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8:10 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

A Reader.. said:
This is in an interesting discussion. There was a pertinent report done by the FBI regarding school threats and violence. It was quite sobering. The document was called "the school shooter:a threat assessment perspective" and it reveals the breadth of violence by students and the threats of violence that often preludes violent action. For those that say threats of violence is either non apparent or not at their school, I would really advise them to read this document.

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3:58 PM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

A Reader.. said:
As a public school teacher from Virginia, I would this whole story really concerns me. From my perspective, threats such as these need to be reported immediately. The true story here is that the school principal or administration failed to report the threat. Period. Regardless of the threat, student, or the teacher involved, it should be have been investigated immediately. As a teacher myself, I would think that many of these parents would be grateful that a teacher would take such measures as reporting the incident to police to safeguard their children. I haven't read one thank you from any of these parent responses. Violence does occur in schools and students do bring guns to schools to commit murders. It is a sad fact. I would be more concerned if the story came out and the teacher had not taken the extra step to go over his or her administration's handling of the matter and reporting it to the police. This would have been a greater travesty here. I hope I would do the same.

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3:38 PM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Chesapeake Science School suspension record... said:
According to the Maryland Department of Education there were 12 suspensions for violent acts, 15 suspensions for insubordination or verbal abuse, and 4 suspensions for sexual offenses. The fact is that there are several people that continually state that there is no violence or safety issues at this school. Truth as documented before suggests otherwise.

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3:27 PM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

What is going on here? said:
For the person who wrote "The fake 'threat' was the result of a game brought on by the teacher". Are you really this oblivious to violence in schools these days? Yes kids can and do fool around and make jokes. But threatening to kill other students is a serious offense and is crossing the line. There is this illusion that this story is either false, unsubstantiated or made up. Apprently this is a real case with real investigations going on surround this incident. According to one police report made public, the child did indeed make the threat of killing others and did get a suspension. This is a fact, not a made up story. Call the Anne Arundel county police to discuss the case. There seems to be many falsehoods about this incident but be sure check the facts that are documented and substantiated.

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5:28 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

parent said:
The fake 'threat' was the result of a game brought on by the teacher, herself. My child said that they were just joking around. Has everyone gone crazy? When are we going to stop taking eberything that is said literally? In that case, I am really going to eat a horse!!! Get real people.

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5:13 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Parent said:
This is a gross misinterpetation of what really happened. The teacher has a lot of issues with the child and blew the situation out of proportion. Examiner: Get your facts straight. There are 2 sides to every story.

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4:53 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Examiner Reader said:
This article is ludicrous and unsubstantiated. I can't imagine where the writer gets his imagination from. I do not worry one iota about my children's safety at Chesapeake Science Point. I spend a lot of time in that school, before, during, and after hours, and I have seen nothing to concern me. The kids are great.Please do not believe everything that you read. Reporters can say whatever they want, they have misquoted me many times. In fact, on one occasion, I was quoted when I had said nothing.

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3:43 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Another Parent said:
Why did the school do nothing about this situation? Why did the school not report the situation to the county school security? Obviously something is deeply awry here. Like the last poster wrote, something is fishy here indeed. There are many good charter schools and it is too bad that this school ends up being an example of one.

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3:39 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

DC Teacher said:
this is really strange and fishy. How is that it is so bad that a kid can threaten this, have the police called in, and the principal not be aware of it. Where was this principal when the police arrived? Did he or she just get amnesia or something? If the principle is so disconnected from the school then they should be replaced, especially in a situation such as this. The article said he or she had already been suspended once before. perhaps this needs to be done permanently.

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3:33 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Reader... said:
This is sounds like a horrible situation. If the teachers are fearing for their safety then the school must be in really bad shape. One would think such a school would be shut down or completely reorganized. Wait..this is a charter school? Why does Anne Arundel County schools keep it open when they are already on probationary terms?

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3:29 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Concerned Parent said:
I can't believe this is happening in our schools. Any threats should be taken seriously. Where was the administration in this? Why did someone have to call the police to resolve this? It sounds like a horrible situation. It sounds like a school from hell.

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12:46 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Examiner Reader said:
And THESE are the kind of kids some leftard wants to send to ANY public university in Maryland for free tuition. Are YOU willing to help pay for his FREE college?

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11:54 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Examiner Reader said:
The Chesapeake Science Point Charter School must have the same type of students as are found in the Baltimore inner city schools.

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8:15 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Examiner Reader said:
This is a severe case of employee abuse by both the administration and students. While most of the news has been a positive gloss over, the fact is that there is a clear record of abuses against women at this school since it opened. Teachers are forced to work unpaid overtime, work through their lunch hours or eat in the afternoon, and are often fired without reason each year. The administration has a large record discrimination including denying use of materials for students, punishment for anyone reporting abuses, and a hostile work environment. The only reason this school is still open is the basic fact that they have ties to unknown politician that supports it.

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6:52 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Employee: Student threatened mass killing at charter school"

Just the facts said:
Oh my God. The principal was suspended for making students to push ups and sit ups. What a crime. Making children exercise certainly is cruel and unusual punishment. Not!

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7:02 AM MST on Thu., Feb. 21, 2008 re: "Anne Arundel school board OKs new budget"

Examiner Reader said:
Just face the facts.Maryland is basically a democrat state with a whole bunch of liberals.Not going to get better in the short term. Balance a budget is not going to happen.PG and Montgomery counties are basically a bunch of government workers who will keep voting in fools as they want to protect their jobs.Baltimore City is a group looking for a free handout. Neither group understands hard work and a 2 job life style. The ones who take the hit are the middle class workers.

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5:18 AM MST on Wed., Feb. 13, 2008 re: "Anne Arundel school system making $500,000 in new cuts"

Examiner Reader said:
But don't worry..O'Malley found money to give his buddies at the P.S.C a huge raise for saving us from those B.G.E rate hikes. Thanks Martin!! You arrogant jerk. Oh and by the way congratulations on Clinton finishing so big in Maryland...NOTTTT!!!LOL. Folks are waking up MARTIN!!

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6:33 AM MST on Tue., Oct. 16, 2007 re: "Fraud hot line suggested for Anne Arundel public schools"

Boo Hoo said:
How about sending an anonymous letter instead? A fraud hotline is further misuse of tax dollars.

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