All students at the middle school and Bernon Heights Elementary School will be able to eat breakfast for free, beginning with the new year.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 8, 2005

BY CYNTHIA NEEDHAM
Journal Staff Writer

WOONSOCKET -- Starting next month, students at two city schools can expect an early morning treat -- free breakfast.

That's when the district will launch a pilot program that invites and even encourages all students at Woonsocket Middle School and Bernon Heights Elementary School to eat free, regardless of their family income or eligibility.

Last night, the newly seated School Committee unanimously voted to implement the pilot program which will run from January through June and test the success of free meals.

If this story sounds familiar, it is. Last year, the Woonsocket School Department conducted a similar pilot program at Kevin K. Coleman Elementary School during the final weeks of the spring semester. But critics assailed the pilot as flawed -- it lasted just a few weeks and took place at a school with soaring poverty rates, meaning many children were already partaking of free breakfast. They demanded another shot.

This fall, School Supt. Maureen B. Macera agreed to re-launch the test program in two larger and more economically diverse schools. With 1,600 students, Woonsocket Middle School was chosen for its size. Bernon Heights was selected for its socioeconomic diversity.

Universal free breakfast, as the program is known in education circles, works on the premise that serving, or at least offering, free breakfast to every child at a given school helps reduce the stigma that can accompany handouts. More importantly, it encourages children to eat a good morning meal in preparation for the day ahead. A hearty breakfast, advocates say, has been shown to improve concentration, reduce discipline problems and thereby improve academic performance.

So how will the pilot work exactly? Students at the two schools will need to arrive at school earlier than normal and will head for the cafeteria. They'll still be expected to swipe their meal cards (for paying students, the swipe debits money from a pre-paid account, for eligible students, it clears them to go ahead and eat for free), but no money will be deducted, regardless of a student's eligibility.

Officials say they still have details to work out: organizing teacher aides or other faculty to monitor the cafeterias; working with Sodexho, the district's food provider to help plan nutritious menus; and properly publicizing the program to encourage as much participation as possible.

Carmen Boucher, co-chair of the Bernon Heights Parent Teacher Organization, said she expects her third-grade daughter, who is not eligible for free or reduced-price meals, will need little encouragement.

"If it means spending time with her friends, she's going to want to do it," Boucher said. "I think it's going to become a social thing like that, if her friends are doing it, she's going to want to as well."

Breakfast advocates say that's good news, but critics insist that too many ineligible students have the potential to cause fiscal problems.

It costs the district $1.27 to prepare each breakfast at the middle school ($1.44 at the elementary level), according to Woonsocket statistics. If a child is eligible for a free breakfast, the federal and state government reimburses the city a total of $1.51. If the child is eligible for reduced-price meals, the reimbursement rate drops to $1.21. For students such as Boucher's daughter, who are not eligible, the reimbursement rate plummets to 23 cents.

Critics such as former Supt. Anthony D'Acchioli point out that if too many ineligible students take part in the pilot compared with the number of eligible students who do so, the city could theoretically lose money.

But Macera said it's too early to imagine worst-case scenarios.

"That's why we're doing a pilot, because we need to collect enough participation data so that we can better understand who is eating and what effect it is having," Macera said.

If the pilot proves to cost more money than expected, but shows a sharp increase in academic performance at the participating schools, for example, the School Committee may decide the costs are worth it, the superintendent said.

"When you have all the data, you can make an informed decision about how you wish to proceed," she added.

School Committee members said they're excited to watch the program's progress and requested monthly financial progress reports from participating schools.

In other news, prior to the breakfast vote, the committee reappointed member Marc A. Dubois as its chairman and voted two-year veteran Michelle R. Williams as the vice chair.