Unpaid lunch bills are costing local schools
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 12, 2014 1:50 AM
Parents not sending in lunch money is contributing to larger cafeteria write-offs, to the tune of more than $170,000 last year, officials said.
Beverly Boltinhouse, finance officer for Wayne County Public Schools, shared the concern with both the district leadership team and the finance committee of the Wayne County Board of Education at a recent meeting.
"Last year it was $140,000. This year it was $176,577. And so far this school year, it's been $20,000," she told the finance committee. "Somehow, we need to be encouraging more students to apply for free and reduced lunch."
If more parents applied for the supplemental funding, it should bring the figure down, Mrs. Boltinhouse said. Otherwise, at the rate it is currently going, with $20,000 in cafeteria write-offs in the first month of school, the deficit could climb to $200,000 by year's end.
Mrs. Boltinhouse said the applications for free and reduced meals go home at the start of school, but not all are returned.
"Is there any way somebody at the school can call the parents and ask them to apply?" board member Rick Pridgen asked. He suggested at this point, it should be easy enough to discern who is not paying.
"Historically, it's the same people year after year," Mrs. Boltinhouse replied.
Whether contacted by phone, mail or e-mail, Pridgen said the effort would be worthwhile and could reduce some of the excess debt.
"When I got on the board 12 years ago it was $60,000-70,000 a year," he said. "Now we're $100,000 more than we were.
"We're not going to let any child go without a meal. We're not going to do that. Some of them, that's the only meal they get. But there's got to be another way we can capture more revenue from this."
Economic conditions might be one reason for the climb in non-payment, board member Eddie Radford said. There might also be some stigma attached to receiving free meals.
Mrs. Boltinhouse said efforts have been made to alleviate the latter, with every child being assigned a number so that no one knows who has already paid or who receives a free or reduced meal.
"If we get reimbursement federally, regardless of the economical situation of the household, I look at this from a business standpoint," Pridgen said. "For $176,000, we could have a full-time person on the payroll and a vehicle, to go around and talk to these parents. They would more than collect the salary just by tracking people down.
"There's got to be a way that we're not looking at."
Pridgen said it would almost be worthwhile to spend money to hire someone to check into delinquent accounts, especially if it meant saving the district $170,000.
"That's a lot of money we're losing on people not paying for lunch," he said.