Spotsylvania students, like these at Chancellor Elementary, could face tighter limits on charging school lunches. FILE/MIKE MORONES/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

View the Stafford County community page

Collecting school lunch bills

Spotsylvania seeking solutions to deal with unpaid lunch bills

Date published: 6/26/2009

By PAMELA GOULD

Stafford and Spotsylvania county school divisions implemented new systems for student lunch payments this past school year with markedly different results.

Stafford wound up with less than $450 in unpaid bills. Spotsylvania's food service is due nearly $26,000, on top of about $2,600 owed for families that later were approved for free or reduced-price lunches.

Chapman Slye, Stafford's director of school nutrition, said Spotsylvania's problem isn't unusual.

"Lunch charging is as old an issue as there is," he said. "It can be very volatile."

Spotsylvania's School Board is considering revising its meals policy, adding a cutoff point from which students would get no more meals on credit.

On Monday, the board is scheduled for a preliminary vote on a plan that would cap the debt for elementary-age youngsters at $43 and middle schoolers at $27. High school students would be capped at one meal.

But at least three members of the School Board, two of whom serve on the school division's food service task force, aren't happy about the prospect of letting the youngest students go through a school day without proper meals.

"My fear is that lunch is going to be the only meal that child is going to get that day," said Lee Hill District Board member Amanda Blalock. "If a child is going to learn, he's got to eat."

Salem District Board member Donald Holmes said he would want something in place to make sure youngsters were fed in an emergency. As a stop-gap measure, he mentioned that parent-teacher organizations or staff could be asked to continue to step in and then be reimbursed by parents.

Battlefield District Board member Linda Wieland said she doesn't want children going without meals, but said parents need to accept that responsibility.

"It does disappoint me the number of parents that feel they are entitled to a free lunch," Wieland said.

Last year's policy was based on the idea that children don't learn well if they're hungry, she said. Still, steps were in place to notify parents when their children's accounts were in arrears.

"We have bent over backwards to help--to keep people abreast of what their debt might be," she said. "In reality, it's a small handful of people [who aren't paying]."

DEALING WITH DEBT

The Spotsylvania County school system's food service remains with an unpaid balance on student meal accounts after the school year concluded. As of Tuesday, the following debts remained: $25,967.60 Parents owe for meals eaten by their children. $28,538.03 Total deficit $2,570.43 School system must cover for students who had outstanding balances before qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. The superintendent asked staff to donate funds to make up this deficit. Donations brought the total down from about $2,700. The Spotsylvania County School Board is considering changing its student meals policy to address the problem of unpaid accounts. The board is scheduled for a preliminary vote on the changes on Monday, including: Elimination of a provision stating that no student would be denied a meal despite a negative account balance except during the last week of school. Setting an elementary school cap of $43 debt, after which parents must provide lunch, set up a payment plan or pay in full. Parents will be called after the first debt is incurred and get increasingly formal notifications as the balance nears the cap. A middle school cap of $27 debt. A student may be asked to call a parent after any debt is incurred. After the fifth debt transaction, the parent gets an auto-dialer message. Additional calls and letters follow as debt increases. High school students get one free lunch. Debt must then be paid. After caps are reached at the elementary and middle school levels, principals will notify social services if parents don't provide children with lunches. A third-party collection agency can be used to recover unpaid debts.

Follow us on

Read more stories about Spotsylvania
Date published: 6/26/2009

Most recent reader comments: