By Kari Lucin, staff writer

Students at Albert Lea schools will need an extra dime a day in the next academic year to pay for lunches. The Albert Lea school board voted Monday to increase lunch prices to compensate for increased costs.

&8220;Any of you that go to the grocery store know it costs money to buy food,&8221; said Food Service Director Mary Nelson. &8220;We have also incurred some costs in transportation. A couple of our vendors are putting on delivery charges because of fuel prices and as labor costs continue to rise.&8221;

During the 2006-’07 school year, breakfasts will cost 70 cents, kindergarten through sixth grade lunches will cost $1.70, seventh- and eighth-grade lunches will cost $1.80, and high school students will pay $1.90 for their lunches.

Adult lunches at kindergarten through eighth grade schools will cost $2.75, up from $2.60. At the high school, adult lunches will cost $3.00, up from $2.70.

&8220;Without this price increase, the 2006-2007 food service budget is projected to run at a deficit,&8221; said Nelson.

Milk prices will remain the same at 30 cents per container.

In other news, the school board:

– Amended the 2005-’06 budget to include $57,334 to repair the gym floor at Southwest Middle School. The floor had significant water damage after a student jumped up and grabbed a sprinkler pipe in the locker room, breaking it. The locker room is at a low point in the school, and most of the sprinkler system drained into it and from there, into the gym. The $57,334 is only the first of two payments for the floor. The parents’ insurance company and the school’s insurance company are still discussing compensation.

– Approved curriculum standards for agri-science, seventh- and eighth-grade family and consumer science, seventh- and eighth-grade industrial technology, and schoolwide reading/language arts standards as well as schoolwide social studies standards.

– Celebrated the accomplishment of SWMS teacher Beth Erickson, who received a grant of $500 for the creation of a calming and destressing space for students with autism. Only four of the grants were issued by the Minnesota Middle School Association, and Erickson’s was one.

– Agreed to offer benefits when hiring a replacement licensed practical nurse at the high school.

– Voted to hire Alden-Conger School District math and science teacher David Bosma on a part-time basis to fill instruction needs at the high school. Alden-Conger had more math instruction than it needed and Albert Lea had less, said Superintendent Dave Prescott.

(Contact Kari Lucin at kari.lucin@albertleatribune.com or 379-3444.)