Plenty of Missoulians are still basking in the glow of summer, defying the latest wave of wildfire smoke in the name of river floats, campouts or the massive downtown block party that is this weekend’s River City Roots Fest. But for families in Missoula County Public Schools, the calendar is ticking fast toward a return to the classroom, with teachers preparing to welcome students back next week.
Trustees in the district have been laying the groundwork for the coming school year for months now, debating an array of policy changes and budget items that stand to impact students and staff in a variety of ways. Take the board’s Aug. 11 agenda, for example, which featured a number of deliberations including whether to increase school lunch costs by 25 cents this fall. A quarter might not sound like much, but a little napkin math shows it equates to an additional $45 per student across a full 180-day academic year. To put it in broader perspective, trustees were told the price bump would
constitute an estimated $180,000 annual increase to the district’s food service budget.
Education funding is maddeningly complex in Montana, and school meal programs are no exception. As in other districts, MCPS sets the per-meal rates it charges in its cafeterias, with the price differing slightly at different grade levels. For elementary students, breakfast is free while lunch costs $3. For high schoolers, breakfast costs $2.25 and lunch is $3.25. About three quarters of students throughout the district pay those full amounts, but the other 20 to 24 percent are enrolled in a federally funded free and reduced meal program.
Depending on their family’s income, those students get some or all of their meal costs covered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. MCPS sends its claims to Montana’s statewide education agency, the Office of Public Instruction, which acts as a sort of data hub and middleman for federal regulators. Reimbursements then trickle back down through OPI, helping the district balance its budget sheet and providing all layers of government with richer insight into the income-related realities of families on the ground. Some families still have to cover a portion of the meal cost out-of-pocket,
and while the Montana Legislature tried to cover those copays as well with a $600,000 allocation last year, Gov. Greg Gianforte opted to veto the measure.
Several trustees last week expressed a desire to see more parents submit applications for the free and reduced meal program, noting a lack of awareness and lingering stigma around food insecurity have likely prevented many eligible families from enrolling. That’s not just a problem from a food access standpoint. Missoula is one of scores of school districts across the state regularly facing food service
debt — in other words, a budget deficit created when students can’t or don’t pay for school meals. Superintendent Micah Hill told the board he didn’t know the current size of that debt at MCPS, but recalled the figure last December was around $250,000.
In recent years, some school boards in Montana have responded to such debt by suggesting unpaid meal bills could be sent to collection agencies. MCPS Board Chair Arlene Walker-Andrews last week reiterated the district’s full-throated rejection of any such measures penalizing parents or students for failure to pay. However, the cost of feeding thousands of students has only risen with inflation, and the money for those meals has to come from somewhere. To date, Missoula has largely relied on a mix of community donations and its own general fund to cover the debt — the latter of which, as
anyone knows, is under constant strain.
“We just talked about rising property taxes, inflation, we’re talking about all the other costs to schools,” trustee Denise Juneau, the former two-term elected head of OPI, observed during the debate. “We have a huge debt already that we offset. I don’t know what a quarter every day gets us that would balance us out if we have to go for donations anyway.”
Ultimately, the proposed 25-cent increase wasn’t a direct reaction to any of this but rather, according to OPI, a state agency mandate to bring MCPS meal prices into better compliance with the latest federal pricing guidelines. That said, the food service debt and the belief that more students are eligible for meal assistance than currently get it were major drivers in the board rejecting the meal price bump. Instead, trustees approved a targeted increase to school lunch rates for adults in MCPS cafeterias, bringing that per-meal price up to $5.25.
In an email response this week, district spokesperson Valerie Rosman told The Pulp MCPS was entering the 2026-27 school year with roughly $300,000 in unpaid school meal balances. Rosman reiterated the importance of families completing free and reduced meal program forms as their kids return to school this fall, noting doing so not only alleviates financial strain for families and the district but can automatically qualify students for waivers on other educational expenses like SAT and college application fees. She encouraged MCPS parents to reach out to the district directly with any questions about eligibility and benefits.
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