At the end of the 2018-2019 school year, Cherry Hill Public Schools had approximately $18,887 in unpaid school lunch fees. While the district has a policy in place to stop serving students after they exceed a $20 threshold in fees, it has not followed the policy to ensure every student is fed. However, with last year’s mounting balance, the Cherry Hill Board of Education discussed at its most recent meeting how it might change and better implement the policy.
Lynn Shugars, assistant superintendent and business/board secretary, said, at the end of the year, the district had 1,723 delinquent accounts. Of those, 1,380 were under $10 and considered “no big deal,” according to Shugars. The remaining 343 accounts exceeded $10 and amounted to $14,383 in delinquent accounts. Cherry Hill High School West and John A. Carusi Middle School represented the largest number of unpaid balances.
In 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture mandated that every school participating in the National School Lunch Program must have a policy in place for unpaid lunches. At that time, the district decided to set predetermined thresholds for delinquent lunches.
At $10, students are served an alternative meal, which includes a tunafish sandwich on wheat bread, milk or juice and a choice of fruits and vegetables. At $20, students are supposed to be cut off. Shugars said they opted for tunafish (a choice met with much chagrin in local community group Facebook pages) over peanut butter because they know students would happily continue PB&J’s without informing their parents and because the district has a number of cases of peanut allergies.
Once a student’s account is in the negative, the business office sends a letter home every 10 days until the balance is paid. The letter encourages parents to reach out to the district to discuss payment options and informs them how they can sign up for the free and reduced lunch program. Shugars said they have English and Spanish versions of this letter and can also have it translated into any language they may need. Each school’s principal gets a list of students who are having these letters mailed home, and in turn, the student’s guidance counselor calls home to check in with the family.
Shugars said it becomes frustrating for the business office, when they are continuously reaching out and getting no response back from parents. She said they don’t want to see a student go without food and are willing to set up payment plans or walk parents through the process of applying for free and reduced lunch. However, some parents call and blame the district for not monitoring their children’s balance or just refuse to pay for any number of reasons.
She said the food service account is an enterprise fund operating similarly to a business. The district uses the funds from that account to pay for equipment, salaries, benefits, insurance, etc.
“If we don’t adhere to our policy, we’re going to be perpetually chasing after this problem,” Shugars said.
Board member Laurie Neary suggested adjusting the district’s thresholds. In June, the board agreed to raise lunch prices from $2.80 a meal to $3 a meal. Neary said the recent increase would have students meeting the first threshold within a few meals.
Fellow board member Ruth Schultz said they can adjust the thresholds but the problem will still exist. She said the conversation is difficult because they’re talking about children, but at the end of the day, they have people who are not paying for lunches. She said if that $14,000 continues to grow, that could prohibit them from buying a refrigerator or force them to cut a position.
“We have to draw the line somewhere,” Schultz said.
Board member Carol Matlack expressed a similar sentiment. She wondered how much of a cushion the district has before they have to start talking about taking money from somewhere else in the budget.
In other news:
- Corrien Elmore Stratton and Ben Ovadia were sworn in as new board members. Their term expires as of the next board reorganization meeting in January.
- The next meeting of the Cherry Hill Board of Education will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Malberg Administration Building.
