Gilmer County students have racked up over $19,000 in unpaid lunch charges this semester.
The figure was revealed by nutrition director Patricia Partin at last Monday’s Gilmer County Board of Education work session. The ’21-’22 academic year is the first where students have not received free lunches since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lunch prices at Gilmer High and Clear Creek Middle are $2.30.
“We had an idea it would be a challenge this year because school lunch was at no charge the last two years,” Partin said. “I ran a report this morning, and I’m just looking at charges $10 and over. Students who have charges within the district were up to $19,268.
“That’s just $10 and over, so if we continue with the rate we’re going right now, we’ll be every bit of $40,000 by the end of the school year with student charges.”
Board members agreed that students must be fed daily, even if it is just a cheese sandwich, which chairman Ronald Watkins suggested and noted was done in the past when the school system had a mountain of money in unpaid charges.
“We’ve been in debt over $200,000 doing this deal,” Watkins said. “It all basically comes back to everyone got something for free for once, and now they expect to get it free. You’ve got to collect it.
“I’ll let no kid go hungry no matter what. I’ll take it out of my own pocket. When we went through this before, it wasn’t the kids who couldn’t afford it, it was the ones who were taking advantage of it who had all the money in the world.”
Partin noted they have certain charge levels that trigger actions from the district. Once a student’s charges surpass different thresholds, Partin and school administrators contact parents weekly by texts, phone calls and emails. Partin mentioned that surrounding counties are “facing the same challenges.”
In the previous two years, Georgia school districts were reimbursed by the state for every meal served. Now that those provisions have expired, districts are only reimbursed for meals served to students who have applied and qualify for free and reduced lunches.
“We’re constantly sending forms and letters home once it gets to a certain amount that they owe,” Partin said. “The way our policy is, every child will get a reimbursable meal. They can have their first meal whether they have the money or not, but for a la carte or any extra stuff they want, they can’t charge that.”
The board is in the process of examining its lunch charge policies, and superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley shared his thoughts, saying, “There are community organizations who will come in and pay the lunch balances at the schools, but this is a lot. Before we get up to the $200,000 range, I wanted to let you (board members) in on the problem and let you know where we’re at since we are talking about the policy.
“I don’t know if there’s a need to change it right now. We’re doing what the policy says, we just haven’t got to the point where we may have to turn it over to a collection agency.”
Ridley added that he does not want to hire a collection agency. Using such services would include the district losing a percentage of the money owed.
Board member Joe Pflueger added, “We have to realize money is tight. It’s really tight for some of these families. I appreciate everything you’re doing and your staff is doing to get this money, but it’s tight. We have to do what we can to work with these parents if we have to use a payment plan or something like that. I hope we never have to turn it over to a collection agency no matter how much it is.”
There are online options for parents to pay charges through the Infinite Campus Portal found at Gilmerschools.com. Payment plans are available, and Partin noted they are willing to work with parents to remedy the issue on a case-by-case basis.