However, the school district faces significant potential budget cuts as DOGE impacts school food funding

Recently, the Trump administration’s professed zeal for cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse” in federal spending resulted in the announcement of massive cuts to USDA pro­grams such as sourcing local foods for school meals and food banks. According to recent reporting from The Denver Post, Colorado stands to lose $13.1 million in such funding. Now, schools and food banks around Colorado, as well as the rest of the country, are scrambling to replace that funding.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Custer County School Superintendent Thom Peck: “The USDA oversees breakfast, lunch, and snack programs.”

The state of Colorado has its own free school lunch pro­gram, Healthy Meals for All, administered through the Colo­rado Department of Education (CDE). This program, unlike the federal free and reduced lunch program, is not income-based – it is open to all students regardless of income. Peck noted that this is a complicating factor in calculating losses from federal program cuts. “[Federal] Title I fund­ing is based on numbers of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch – but since Colorado decided that every kid gets free lunch, it messes with Title I money. Because our parents didn’t have to fill out the forms for free and reduced lunch, we didn’t have an accurate number [for qualifying students]. Documentation of financial need went way down, so that means a reduction in funds.”

However, local food sourcing for such Custer County School meal items as beef will continue, partly as a local decision, partly as a result of a state law passed in 2019, HB 19-1132, allowing CDE and other state agencies to dis­tribute financial incentives to food banks and schools that source fresh food and produce from local farmers and ranch­ers. “We are going to use local beef that is processed by a USDA processor,” Peck said.

Among the other headaches for school administrators to deal with, besides the USDA cuts, are the Trump administra­tion’s threats to the federal Department of Education (DOE) funding – threats that include getting rid of the DOE altogether. “Title I funding is six percent of our general fund budget,” Peck said: “but that’s only part of the issue. Federal money is also part of the big grants that CDE oversees. If those get cut, we are in trouble. It would eliminate training programs for teachers. I have five paraprofessionals that want to pursue teacher training. These grants help pay for alternate licensing.”

Peck cited another program called Project Lead the Way, which funds STEM curriculum planning and implementa­tion: “We have two $20,000 grants from the state for this program. Where does that money come from? The feds!”

As for knock-on effects from federal funding cuts, Peck said, “75 percent of our general fund is salaries and bene­fits. A reduction in funding means reducing staff. Classroom sizes go up – you become less effective. And if we can’t do free breakfast or snack anymore – kids won’t be at their best for learning and behavior.”

When asked whether most of the Custer County stu­dents come in and eat breakfast at school, Peck grinned and replied, “Yes – but it depends on the breakfast! Monday morning cereal doesn’t get them that excited, but Thursday morning biscuits and gravy sure does!”

(The Tribune will continue to report on the effects of federal budget cuts on the school and other organizations around the county and the state.)

– Elliot Jackson