Dear Hayfield Parents/Families:
Our school will be providing free meals each day (1 lunch/1 breakfast) due to new legislation passed during the 2023 Minnesota Legislative Session. Any seconds, ala carte, or extras are still at a cost to the families. If you are carrying a negative balance, you will not be allowed to receive anything more than your one free lunch and one free breakfast a day. Our school is excited for each family to receive this benefit, but also requests your help with a few items.
First, please fill out the 2023-2024 Application for Educational Benefits Form (Free/Reduced Lunch Form). This form may qualify you for other benefits and it helps our school receive Federal funding as most of our Federal funding is dependent on our Free/Reduced lunch percentage. We also receive state funding (Compensatory Funding) based on our Free/Reduced lunch percentage. Last, the Free/Reduced lunch percentage also impacts our classification for athletics and activities (whether we stay in Class A or move to Class AA). Anyone who questions if they qualify should fill out this form. These forms are protected as data private and may provide a financial benefit to our school.
Second, if you have an outstanding lunch balance from prior years, we appreciate your attention to this matter. We still have numerous families carrying a negative balance from last school year. Our audit takes place in the fall, and the auditors are quite adamant that we need to clear up this debt immediately.
Thank you to those of you who have already filled out your form. You will receive an acknowledgment of your status from the district office early next week.
We look forward to serving our students a quality lunch and breakfast each day. We appreciate your help in making sure our school receives the funding necessary to provide important programs to serve our students.
Sincerely,
Gregg Slaathaug
Hayfield MN Superintendent