Duluth schools budget absorbs cut in free lunch reimbursement

Duluth Public Schools’ final budget meeting on June 9 turned on a small number with a big consequence: a 6-cent drop in state reimbursement for each free lunch starting July 1 will leave the district with an estimated $82,000 annual gap. District leaders said the shortfall will be covered by the food service fund, but the change lands as the district is already working through its third version of the 2026-2027 budget proposal.

The reimbursement cut comes as more students are using free lunch and food prices keep climbing. District officials said supply costs are running about 11% to 12% higher than last year, adding pressure to a meal program that has become a key part of daily school operations in Duluth and across St. Louis County. Board member Amber Sadowski called the loss disappointing, and District 4 board member and Vice Chair Jill Lofald said state leaders had stepped back from the support they had promised for free meals.

For parents, the immediate answer is that no meal reduction has been announced. Duluth Public Schools says its food service fund is strong enough to absorb the $82,000 hit. But the broader budget picture shows how little room the district has to maneuver. In March, Duluth Public Schools said it needed to cut about $4.2 million for 2026-2027 because rising insurance costs, specialized student-services costs and inflation were outpacing state and federal funding.

That larger reduction plan has already forced displacement of an estimated 43 staff positions, though district leaders have said displacement is not always the same as a layoff and that retirements and attrition could still soften the blow. The district’s estimated general fund reduction totals $4,296,067, with cuts spread across district operations, elementary schools, secondary schools and contracted services.

The budget document also shows where officials are trying to protect students from the worst effects of the cuts. Money has been shifted to preserve instructional paraprofessionals at Laura MacArthur Elementary, a first-grade teacher at Piedmont Elementary through Title II funding, and Check & Connect mentoring and additional counseling services at Denfeld High School and Duluth East. The June 9 proposal also included smaller adjustments, including reallocating money to add social workers.

Minnesota’s free meals program, which became permanent on July 1, 2023, still requires schools to count and claim meals by eligibility category so they receive the correct reimbursements. The state’s published reimbursement table for 2025-26 lists the free-lunch state share at $4.2852 per meal. With a food program now serving more than 302 million meals in its first two years, even a six-cent trim is enough to ripple through district planning, and the School Board is set to take up the proposal June 16.