PARSONS — A new superintendent of schools and several new board members took part in this week’s Tucker County Board of Education meeting.

The new superintendent, Alicia Lambert, was formerly the principal at Davis Thomas Elementary/Middle School. She replaces Dr. Eddie Campbell, who resigned after seven years in the position to become the superintendent of the Monongalia County school system.

The newly sworn-in Tucker Board of Education members include Cathy Hebb, Jessica Wamsley and Chris Gross.

During this week’s meeting, the board discussed the approval of the Community Eligibility Provision, which was proposed by Schools Food Service Director Jonathan Hicks.

The Community Eligibility Provision is a meal service option for low-income school district areas that focuses on non-pricing meals.

The program will allow the school district to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to students currently enrolled in Davis Thomas Elementary/Middle School and Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School.

The program will not yet be available to students at Tucker County High School, because of qualification reasons. It will allow students to receive the free meals without collecting household applications.

The two schools will be reimbursed for the meals using a formula-based percentage of students who are categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in SNAP and the TANF program for West Virginia, WV WORKS.

Hicks explained that this program will help children in the two schools receive their lunches without their parents worrying about paying for the child’s lunch bill at the end of the year.

Of course, the program doesn’t cover the meals that the children have already purchased at the school, meaning that any outstanding students’ lunch bills from the previous years will still have to be paid.

Hicks also explained that the program will help the school district deal with the school lunch debts that are currently impacting the school system.

Hicks and the board also stressed that the school system prides itself on not preventing children from receiving their lunches because of a lack of upfront payment. They said the Tucker County school system will always allow children to receive lunches, regardless of their ability to pay.

The new program will also allow children who pack their lunches to be able to receive food at school, also. Students who pack their lunch have the choice of picking at least three items from the school lunch, hot or cold, if they wish.