SWANZEY CENTER, N.H. – A New Hampshire school board will ask voters to raise and appropriate more than $87,000 to provide “free” breakfasts to elementary students in the Monadnock Regional School District next year.

Last week, Monadnock Regional School Board members voted to keep an $87,518 expense in the district “warrant” presented to voters for approval in March that would fund breakfasts for all students in the district’s five elementary schools for the 2017-18 school year, the Sentinel Source reports.

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“We’ve spent a lot of time over the past year talking about how we can improve things in our district and the ways we can really make a difference when it comes to the lives of the people in our community,” board member Nicholas Mosher told the news site, adding that the “free” breakfasts is one way.

“I think it’s a shame that it could be something that goes away.”

The district’s finance and facilities committee asked the board to review free breakfasts in November over logistical issues raised by administrators and the underestimated cost to provide the meals. Board chairman Michael Blair, “who is also a member of the finance committee, said on Dec. 6 that offering free breakfast to all Monadnock students is a great idea, but there isn’t enough money in the warrant articles to provide it appropriately and to the best of the school officials’ abilities,” according to the news site.

Superintendent Lisa Wittle also pointed out that if the free breakfast proposals passed for students at the elementary and middle/ high schools, district officials would need more time and manpower to feed 800 students at the middle/ high school in the roughly 15 minutes before classes each morning.

“We would require more staff, more busing or altered busing,” Blair said. “It has ramifications that are larger than what the warrant article is today.”

Board members last week opted to keep the free lunches proposal for elementary students, but did away with the same for the middle/ high school – a cost budgeted at $76,587 in the warrant, the Source reports.

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Some board members noted that students who struggle to pay for their meals are typically eligible for free or reduced-price lunches if they sign up for a federal program.

Others worried that some students who qualify for the assistance won’t take advantage of it, and argued in favor of the “free” breakfasts for all.

The debate over the “free” breakfasts comes as three of the six towns contributing to the Monadnock Regional School District are significantly increasing local taxes to pay for the proposed $32.5 million budget for 2017-18.

The tax bills include “a 17 percent spike in Troy’s payment to Monadnock for the current school year; Fitzwilliam’s and Swanzey’s school district payments increased by 14 percent; and Roxbury’s payment increased by 5 percent,” the Source reports.

And while the board voted to remove the provision for free breakfasts for middle and high school students, the proposal for free meals at elementary schools is moving forward as officials consider other budget cuts and cost savings, such as increasing class sizes, eliminating late running buses and some extracurricular activities, and ending funding for the Gilsum STEAM Academy.

Board member Lisa Steadman said she believes free breakfasts for all is a luxury the district simply cannot afford at the moment.

“I don’t think it’s the right year for us to be bringing things forward to the voters that are luxury or nice to have,” she said.

“This would sort of be a luxury for us,” Steadman said. “If the article passes, and there is not enough money in it, we’d have to steal dollars from somewhere else when we have no dollars to steal from anywhere.”