Public schools may begin charging more for school lunches as early as January, said schools superintendent Patricia Hamamoto.

There are no plans to immediately increase school lunch prices despite a new law that allows the state Department of Education to charge at least half of what it costs to prepare it.

But Hamamoto said she is likely to propose lunch price increases to the state Board of Education in July or August, with the earliest implementation date at the middle of next school year or the beginning of the 2010-11 school year.

"To say we can implement by the start of next school year is not realistic. We have work to do in changing the system and getting the word out to people," Hamamoto said.

With the cost to prepare a lunch estimated at about $4.20, it's conceivable that students may be paying more than $2 to eat at school, under a bill passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Linda Lingle.

The new law, known as Act 26, will take effect July 1 and follows a year in which the DOE's food costs surged nearly 15 percent. The measure allows the DOE to charge more than half of the cost of preparation, but the DOE has no intention of doing so, Hamamoto said.

Presently, the cost for a full-priced lunch is $1.25, which is below the national average price of about $2.25, DOE officials said.

Likewise, a full-priced breakfast on campus is 35 cents, with the cost to prepare it at about $1.76.

Breakfast prices have not increased since 1981. Lunch prices last increased in 2001, from $1 to $1.25.

BOARD RELUCTANT

Garrett Toguchi, chairman of the state Board of Education, said that many board members are reluctant to increase lunch prices while families are feeling the impact of the slowing economy.

"This board recognizes the impact it would have on students and families (to the point) where we wouldn't have a drastic increase. We would try to phase things in," Toguchi said.

The previous law allowed the DOE to charge half of the average cost over a three-year period. However, current administrative rules only allow the DOE to charge one-third of the average cost and to raise lunch prices every two years.

The Board of Education will meet today to vote to change the administrative rule governing lunch prices to match the new state law, Toguchi said.

But that action won't automatically increase lunch prices, he said.

Toguchi said the administrative rule change will allow the DOE and board members to respond quicker to changes in food prices and other market conditions that affect the cost of preparing lunch.

CALCULATING COSTS

The DOE spent about $27 million for food on school campuses last year, which increased to $31 million this year, said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent of facilities and support services. That's a nearly 15 percent increase.

Moore also said that the state and federal government heavily subsidizes the cost of lunch.

For instance, in the 2007-08 school year, only $15 million in revenue was raised through lunch fees, while $35 million was contributed by the state and $36 million by federal reimbursements under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's School Lunch Program.

The new law also poses an additional challenge for education officials.

DOE officials say they are reviewing the way the cost of meals is calculated. The new law would allow DOE to charge half of the cost, but officials say it is difficult to calculate how much that actually works out to.

"In preparing the meals, you have to not only take into account the cost of the food, but the labor, the fixed cost, the overhead, the electricity," Hamamoto said.

After refining DOE's way of calculating the cost of a meal, Hamamoto said she'll present the information to BOE members and the public.