Quincy Schools to pay more for food this year

QUINCY — The Quincy School Board accepted food bids for the 2022-2023 school year that will see an increase of more than 20 percent.

At Wednesday night’s meeting, the Board accepted the lowest bid of $980,897 from Kohl Wholesale for food and nonfood items, Prairie Farms’ low bid of $273,192 for milk, Kohl’s low bid of $58,374 for bread and the Central Illinois Produce’s bid for produce of $2.25 for full cases and $1.50 for broken cases.

The food and milk bids both have increases exceeding 20 percent from last year.

With only about a month to go before students return to class, the school district is also wrapping up summer construction projects on campuses, but beginning a new project with the relocation of the Transportation Department to 1600 N. 43rd.

Superintendent Todd Pettit, who was taking part in his first School Board meeting in the job, said the four-year process of renovating Quincy Junior High is nearly complete.

“This is bringing the junior high to 21st century standards,” Pettit said. “We truly are keeping the junior high the gem of the Gem City.”

There will be a Building Committee meeting next week to discuss converting the former K&L Arena into the district’s new transportation hub. Architects will present plans to the committee at that meeting.

The 2022-23 school year begins with teachers reporting on August 15, Quincy High School freshmen and new students reporting on August 17 and all Quincy Public Schools students returning on August 18.