Lunch money may go online

GLENDALE — Bullies looking to take lunch money may become outdated at Glendale Unified School District.

The board of education is expected to vote tonight to enact a program that would allow parents to pay for their children’s school meals online.

“I wanted another convenience for the parents … because right now they’re giving cash or sending checks to school,” said Agnes Lally, director of food services for the district.

If approved, the new program would give parents the option of continuing as they are, or going paperless.

The agreement with eTritionWare through the website EZSchoolPay.com would not cost the district anything. But there would be a 6% service fee for parents.

Lunches are $2 and breakfasts are $1 for middle and high schools for the 2007-08 school year. For elementary schools, lunches are $1.75 and breakfasts are $1. Reduced-price lunches are 40 cents and breakfasts are 25 cents.

Jamie Zwerling, who has students at Glenoaks Elementary School, was initially displeased with the surcharge.

“I think that that is a bit short-sighted, that they could probably find a way to do online payments for school lunches without charging that extra 6%,” she said.

But considering her own experience of running an Internet business, Zwerling said the surcharge is acceptable.

“Yeah, you know what, I probably wouldn’t mind paying 6% more, but it’s kind of interesting,” she said.

But the district should make clear what the 6% is being used for so other parents do not have the same initial reaction, she said.

School officials did not seem to share her trepidation. “There’ll be less pressure on our kids to be having that much money with them,” Edison Elementary School Principal Kelly King said. “Sometimes envelopes are lost and we have kids in tears…. Sometimes money gets lost and we have children who panic. There are some kids from before who spend the money elsewhere.”

For example, students may spend their lunch money at a book fair instead of in the cafeteria, King said.

There are cases around the district of bullying, but the old idea of aggressive children bossing around others is already a thing of the past, King said.

All schools in the district have some type of student account system for school meals, Lally said. Elementary students use debit cards that parents can deposit money into.

At middle and high schools, student type in their student identification number to get their accounts debited. So cash has long been eliminated for many students in the district, she said.

But the credit system has created some debt for students, Lally said.

Students are never turned away empty-stomached when their accounts are depleted, she said.

The food-services managers at each school site gives students a lot of leeway on their accounts, but makes sure to remind them to refill their cards or accounts, she said.

Food services must make its own money to stay afloat, as it is not publicly funded.

And delinquent accounts hurt the bottom line.

But with online payment system, parents could check their children’s balances from home with a simple click of the mouse, Lally said.

This could help decrease the number of delinquent accounts, she said.

Lally would not divulge how many, or what percentage, of students’ accounts are in the red.

“I would say it’s a slightly negative impact. But it’s not so bad at this point,” she said. “Because we are here for the kids, and one of my policies is that we don’t want a child to go hungry. And it’s not the child’s fault when they forget to do accounts.”

But broader issues may still be tied to this shift toward parents controlling their children’s finances, said Bob Canfield, assistant principal at Wilson Middle School.

“Personally, whenever a kid is put in a position of responsibility, I think it’s going to make them more wiser and more efficient,” Canfield said.

At the same time, the parents are ultimately paying for the lunches, he said.

“I don’t see for us any difference for the students, other than the fact that it’s less complication,” he said.

“It certainly will be a more convenient system for the parents,” he added.

If approved by the board, the system will go online by September, when the regular school year starts.