The Metrowest Daily News reported that Framingham families have racked up $70,000 in school lunch debt.
The information they shared on Southborough is trifling in comparison. Still, it seems that Southborough does have its own unpaid lunch problem.
MWDN interviewed Northborough-Southborough’s food services director, Maura Feeley:
With nine schools of her own to look after, Feeley said she’s also spending time this week tracking down families with unpaid meal accounts. Over the course of a school year, each of those buildings usually racks up a few hundred dollars worth of lunch debt, she said.
Some school districts offer a “scaled-back lunch” to students whose accounts are in arrears. Southborough isn’t one of them:
“My philosophy is not to put the child in the middle,” said Feeley, whose department also doesn’t engage in that practice. “You just have to work with the parents.”
For the full article, click here.
We got behind a few times this year for our 2 kids, because we could not find out the balance after initially adding money. Does the UniPay system have any way to query a balance? Notifications from the school only came after remaining balance(s) were well below zero.
Ironically, the kids buy lunch about the same, but we only got a “due” notice for 1 child. After I inquired about the other, they replied with our other child’s balance, which existed, and was slightly higher. What if I hadn’t asked?
Yes, the same thing that Bruce described happened to us. Also, we were told the wrong balance and screwed up our planning for the end of the year. The online pay system is convenient, but it is absurd that you can’t track the balance.
I have been told there is no way to know a balance and think that is completely unacceptable. I was told to “keep track” of how often my kid buys lunch. Huh?
Agree with all above. It’s odd that you can’t track the $$, which means “low balance” notes being sent home…plus I’m sure I’ve got $$ in the account now, which I imagine carries over to next year.