GARNER – The Garner-Hayfield Community School District announced a tough new policy on parents and students who fail to stay current on their school lunch accounts.
A “lunch policy change” was apparently mailed to parents and published on the district’s website, which reads:
Effective Sept. 2, 2014, all nutrition accounts with a negative balance will be turned over to a collection agency. Also, effective Sept. 2, 2014, any paying student (this includes those approved for reduced price lunches) with a negative balance of $5.00 or more will receive a State of Iowa approved minimal meal. A minimal meal will include a cheese OR peanut butter sandwich, a fruit OR a vegetable, and a carton of milk. Ala carte items cannot be charged if there are no funds available on the account. Thank you for your help in clearing up the negative balance accounts.
Some say the district is doing what any business would do in order to avoid losses to its business: Collect on late balances.
Others, however, seem to believe that this is part of a heavy-handed attitude the district has taken, and that children pay the price.
“Kids with certain grades or negative balance have to sit at a different table,” a Forest City woman wrote via social media.
Another man wrote “feed and educate our kids because our lives AND theirs depends on it”.
Today, Monday, August 18, is the first day of school for high school students in Garner. Elementary students start Tuesday.
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