Guam - The price for school lunches will go up $0.50 at the beginning of this school year. DOE superintendent Dr. Nerissa Bretania Underwood gave a report to education board members this morning that she was notified by USDA officials during a recent conference call that meal prices could only be increased at the beginning of the school year and not at the beginning of the calendar year.

The board in 2009 voted to raise the meal prices. The next increase was expected to take effect in January 2012, but the feds told DOE that the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 restricts them from doing so at that timeframe.

GEB members today approved to accelerate the increase. School lunches in August will now go up to $2.50.