LYNNWOOD — The cold cheese sandwich will no longer stand alone.
The Edmonds School District has been substituting those sandwiches, and nothing else, for full lunches for students who are behind on their meal fees this school year. A muffin has been substituted at breakfast.
It’s an attempt to recoup more than $200,000 in fees owed for school meals.
Now, after some complaints, district officials are looking at other ways of addressing the problem. They’ve decided to at least add milk to the sandwich or muffin, effective today, officials said.
“The last thing anybody wants to do is hurt kids,” Superintendent Nick Brossoit said.
While the district’s phone wasn’t ringing off the hook Wednesday, officials heard enough complaints to prompt them to change the policy, Brossoit said.
“It brings me to tears to think of how embarrassing this is for students,” said Dyana Stevens of Bothell, a graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School, who offered to contribute to help pay for lunches.
Adding more items, though, will add to the district’s costs, which will likely have to be passed on in the form of higher prices, district finance director Marla Miller said. Meal prices already were raised at the beginning of the school year.
The new policy has resulted in cafeteria staff throwing out food on trays of students who can’t pay, to comply with health regulations.
“You definitely don’t want to embarrass the kids, and you certainly don’t want to throw the food away — that’s ridiculous,” said Ron Martinez of Lynnwood, president of the district’s PTSA.
The district has also heard complaints about parents not fulfilling their responsibility to pay, Brossoit said.
Martinez sees that side of it, too, he said.
“It’s not right that the parents would let their accounts get that high, either,” he said. “You’ve got to talk to the parents, you’ve got to get some kind of accountability.”
After students go through the lunch line and fill their trays with food, cashiers at all Edmonds schools are supposed to check if each student owes money. As of today, if a student owes $10 or more and can’t pay right then, the cashier is supposed to replace the student’s tray with a sandwich of cheddar cheese on whole-grain bread and a milk.
Because of food safety concerns, the cashiers must throw away the food on confiscated trays, said Sara Conroy, interim director of food service.
Before 2004, the district provided no meals to students who did not pay. That year, district officials decided they didn’t want kids going without food.
“We certainly don’t want any student to go away hungry,” said Susan Paine, president of the Edmonds School Board.
Since then, losses mounted and spiked last spring, possibly because of the downturn in the economy, officials said. At the beginning of this year, the total stood at $207,763.
“We saw last year a pretty radical change,” Brossoit said. Also, there were reports of kids of some kids purposely not paying, “just for sport,” he said.
This summer, district officials made two decisions. The first, approved in a unanimous vote by the board, was to raise the price of meals, which now range from $1.75 for breakfast at elementary schools to $4 for lunch at the district’s high schools.
The second, approved informally, was to substitute lower-cost meals to try to make up the losses. Brossoit said staff told the board of the general idea but offered no details.
“We didn’t talk specifically of how that was going to happen. I think that’s where we erred,” he said. “The board knew we were trying to feed kids, and were supportive.”
Board vice president Ann McMurray said it was a tough decision.
“It’s difficult when kids are on the front lines of a money issue,” she said. “It would be helpful if people paid their bills. Or if they can’t afford the school lunch, to send a lunch from home with their child.”
So far, the cost of tossing meals and adding cheese sandwiches and muffins to the mix has been outweighed by the payments the district has received, said Marla Miller, the district’s financial director.
When school started last week, 2,750 students owed $10 or more. After five days, $45,269 had been repaid from 961 students, according to the district.
Ideas for changing the system include having kids pay at the beginning of the line, so it’s determined before they get their food whether they’re behind on payments, Brossoit said. This process, used by the Everett School District, would involve having another staff member, by separating out the cashier function and that of the person who must inspect the meals, the superintendent said.
District officials are weighing the financial effect of adding more items to the lunch and more staff.
The district strongly encourages families who are struggling financially to apply for the federal government’s free- or reduced-fee lunch program.
“We send out the application and the instructions to all families because we don’t want to assume who may need it this year,” Miller said, adding that it’s sent in several languages.
“There are homes in this economy that are really strapped,” Brossoit said. “We don’t want them to go hungry.”
Herald reporter Kaitlin Manry contributed to this story.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
Help with meals
For an application for the free- or reduced-fee lunch program, go to www.edmonds.wednet.edu and click on “free or reduced price meal application.”
To donate to help the district cover school meal costs, send a check payable to the Edmonds School District, attn. Marla Miller, 20420 68th Ave. W. The check or an enclosed note should specify that the money go to pay for school meals, and may specify a particular school.
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