By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – School lunch prices are going up in Marshfield. The Board of Education voted May 9 in favor of increases at all levels.

Amber Kiggens-Leifheit said the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) mandated the increases.

“In the past, we used to have more local control in how we set school lunch prices, but now the DPI says, ‘you must raise it at least 10 cents per year until our average meal cost reaches the difference between the federal free and the federal paid lunch,’” Kiggens-Leifheit said.  “Bottom line is we need to raise our prices a little for next year.”

The board said “yes” to a 15-cent increase in school lunch prices at the elementary level, from $2.45 to $2.60. The Marshfield Middle School price is also going up by 15 cents, from $2.60 to $2.75. The price at the high school is moving 20 cents higher to $2.90 – up from $2.70. School lunch prices did not go up last year.

Kiggens-Leifheit noted that breakfast prices are not going up.

The school board also voted to increase the daily rate of pay for substitute teachers, which Kiggens-Leifheit said the district has struggled to attract because of low daily pay rates.

“We probably are paying a little on the low side, and when you look at what the support staff gets paid for teaching the same number of hours, we need a differential between what they make and what the substitute teacher makes,” she said.

Under the plan adopted last night, substitute teachers in Marshfield will now make $115 per day starting in the fall, versus the $100 a day they are paid now.