| Nutrition Services Division Information Alert |
|
| To: School Nutrition Program Sponsors (Public Schools, Charter Schools, and County Offices of Education) |
Number: NSD-SNP-09-2010 |
| Attention: Business Officials, Food Service Directors |
Date: November 2010 |
| Subject: Additional 2009-10 State Reimbursement (Proposition 98) Rate Reduction | |
| Supersedes: Information Alert NSD-SNP-05-2010 | |
This Information Alert provides information on a further reduction to the 2009-10 State reimbursement Proposition (Prop) 98 rate reduction. In a previous letter from the Fiscal and Administrative Services Division and an April 2010 Information Alert from the Nutrition Services Division, you were informed that the Prop 98 State Meal appropriation of $134,044 million for fiscal year 2009-10 did not appear sufficient to support the statutory reimbursement rate of $0.2195 for all projected eligible free and reduced-price (F/RP) meals served through the School Nutrition Programs. At that time, the reimbursement rate for May 2010 was reduced to $0.20 per meal and no reimbursement was offered for June 2010.
The California Department of Education (CDE) has completed reconciling the 2009-10 Prop 98 State Meal funding and has found that the actual funding deficiency is higher than anticipated. Although the rate for May 2010 was reduced to $0.20 and June 2010 meals were not reimbursed, the projected need is approximately $1.4 million short. This shortage can be attributed to a significant increase in sponsors who combined their June meals on their May claim. This, of course, is allowable, but was never a major factor in past projections. The increase in combined May/June claims sufficiently increased the number of May meals claimed to exceed the original projection by $1.4 million.
This is an unfortunate turn of events, and the CDE regrets to inform you that to mitigate this issue, the May 2010 rate must be further reduced from $0.20 to $0.1795 per F/RP meal. This is an additional reduction of $0.0205 per F/RP meal. The additional reduction will allow the CDE to (1) recoup funds from School Nutrition Program sponsors that have received $0.20 per meal, and (2) reimburse the 14 sponsors who have yet to receive any State funding for their May 2010 meal reimbursement claims.
The CDE will recoup the $0.0205 per F/RP meal from a current year claim through CNIPS, and not send a separate billing.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Shawneen Coriloni by phone at 916-322-4311 or by e-mail at scoriloni@cde.ca.gov; or Phyllis Savage by phone at 916-322-8326 or by e-mail at psavage@cde.ca.gov.
