Changes planned for school meal payment policy

Amount owed, alternative meals among the planned revisions
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

SHAWANO — Vague wording in the Shawano School District’s policy on negative meal account balances has meant confusion for parents and staff.

That could be changing, as the district’s policy and curriculum committee met Monday to discuss new guidelines that would apply at all schools and not make the cutoff point open to interpretation by individual schools. The current policy is confusing for parents who learn they’re behind in paying for their children’s meals and for staff who are unclear what the threshold is for negative balances.

Bobby Reed, the district’s food service director, said that the district currently sends notifications to parents when they owe $10 or more for breakfast and lunch. For reduced-price meal recipients, that allows quite a few meals to be racked up, but for those families that pay full-price, four or five lunches usually meet the notification threshold.

However, the district policy does not specify the dollar amount, according to Superintendent Randi Anderson. The policy only says “the permissible negative balance amount” and that students who exceed that amount will be given “an alternative meal.”

“I know that there have been conversations, historically, but they did not get documented and implemented,” Anderson said. “That’s one of the things we want to bring back to the board.”

The alternative meal policy has not been enforced, according to Reed, as there are no clear-cut policies on what constitutes a proper meal in lieu of what is being served that day. While high school students are barred from accessing a la carte items, there’s nothing in place for the lower grades, and as a result, some balances are hundreds of dollars in the red, he said.

“I’ve talked with other school districts,” Reed said to the committee. “Oconto Falls is very strict, even at the elementary level. When they get below $10, they have to go to the office and pick up a brown bag that has a cheese sandwich in it.”

Board member Alysia Pillsbury did not like the idea of adopting the strictness that Oconto Falls has in place.

“I’m not in favor of humiliation,” Pillsbury said. “I’m also not comfortable with $10. It’s too low.”

Anderson agreed, noting that she herself has failed on occasion to keep up with her child’s meal payments.

“I am one that the child should not have to pay for the consequences of an adult behavior,” Anderson said. “It’s not for my child to put money into her account. It’s for me, as an adult to put money into the account.”

The board members on the committee agreed there needs to be one policy enforced across the board.

“I’m absolutely against having principals decide at random,” Grams said. “There’s got to be a policy.”

Although not finalized, the committee bandied about the idea of cutting off the account at $50 and looked to staff to figure out what an appropriate alternative meal is without subjecting students to the stigma of being in the red. The revised policy is expected to return to the committee for a recommendation before it’s presented to the full board.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com