AUBURN – As Edward Little High School works on getting a hot lunch program by Jan. 1, the staff is especially excited, Assistant Principal Rob Bennett said.

Every day they see students who don’t eat because they can’t afford lunch. So custodians, teachers, health workers and assistant principals often feed students. One teacher has bread, ham and cheese available for sandwiches. Other staffers, including Bennett, have pretzels, crackers, juices and canned food. You know a student is hungry, Bennett said, when he eats cold beans.

Food now sold at the school’s cafe includes small subs for $2, nachos for $2, chips for $1, crackers for 50 cents, bottled juice, water or sports drinks for $1.25, pizza or pasta for $2.25, and milk for 50 cents or $1.

Because there’s no federally subsidized hot lunch at EL, students from families of meager means who qualify are not getting free and reduced lunches. They will in January. Other students will be able to buy a full meal for $1.75 or less.

– Bonnie Washuk

Gaining ground

Lewiston-Auburn jumped 43 spots in the annual Milken Institute’s ranking of the best performing small cities in America. In 2007, the Twin Cities area ranked 127th in the economic think tank’s ranking of 200 small cities. In 2008, it cracked the top 100, landing at No. 84.

The rankings, released Thursday, are based on growth in wages, jobs, technology-related industries and population.

Bangor also showed impressive gains, moving from No. 149 to No. 82, while Portland dropped one spot to No. 158 in the larger city rankings.

Across the country, rising energy prices and the housing mess stymied growth in 2007. The report expects conditions to deteriorate even further in 2008, citing the continued contraction of the housing market, rising commodity prices, oil spikes, overall inflation exceeding wage growth, a continuing credit crunch, declining employment figures and “a consumer increasingly squeezed by excessive debt-servicing burdens.”

Only the West seems to have escaped the brunt of the economic downturn. Three of the top 10 smaller cities this year are in Texas – Midland, Longview and Odessa – which benefit from high oil prices, an abundance of natural resources and growth in the broader energy industry, the report said. To see the entire report, go to www.milkeninstitute.org

– Carol Coultas

Not ready for prime time yet

The Lewiston City Council meetings are on cable television. So are the Auburn City Council and the Auburn School Committee.

Alas, if someone wants to listen as members of the Lewiston School Committee Committee deliberate, they have to go to a meeting.

Few do, the reality for most school board meetings, unless they’re closing a school.

If their meetings were on cable television, the Lewiston School Committee would receive more community feedback, member Ronella Paradis said. She made the observation as members were discussing an upcoming self-evaluation.

The meetings are not broadcast, Superintendent Leon Levesque said, because the local cable channels have not offered “and we do not have the site capacity” at the Dingley Building. – Bonnie Washuk