By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Staff members and visitors to Alabaster city schools will see a slight increase in cafeteria lunch prices during the upcoming school year as a result of federal guidelines, according to the system’s Child Nutrition Department.

During a June meeting, the city’s Board of Education voted unanimously to set the new staff and visitor prices for the 2017-2018 school year. Staff lunch prices will increase from $3.50 to $3.75, and visitor prices will increase from $4 to $4.25.

Student lunch rates will remain the same as they were last year, at $2.75 for children in grades kindergarten through fifth-grade, and $3 for students in grades sixth-12^th.

The increase in staff and visitor prices came about because of federal regulations requiring school systems to examine their lunchroom prices before each school year, said ACS Child Nutrition Department Manager Heather McDermott.

“It’s a federal calculation that we are required to adhere to,” McDermott said.

“This is not something we are doing on our own,” said ACS Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers. “It’s a requirement under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids act of 2010.”

The act requires school districts to price their paid lunches “equal to or more than” the amount the school district is reimbursed by the federal government for children in the free and reduced lunch program.