Bigfork schools crack down on late lunch fees

By CALEB M. SOPTELEAN

Bigfork Eagle

Bigfork schools are cracking down on parents who don’t pay for their students’ lunches.

After much discussion on how to deal with the problem of a lunch system that is $4,500 in arrears, Bigfork school trustees unanimously decided last week to cut off middle and high school students from charging their lunches once they are $10 in arrears. Elementary students who reach that threshold will get a sack lunch of a cheese sandwich, apple and milk. The new policy takes effect Jan. 15.

The district tried to bring down a more than $10,000 deficit in the spring and summer by calling parents and letting them know they can pay for students’ accounts online. That helped bring it down to around $2,000, but there are still some parents who are not paying and the deficit has gone back up since the school year started, district food service director Ginny Kirby said.

Kirby, who took over from Judy Kinyon this fall, spoke to trustees at Wednesday’s school board meeting.

A few parents are not returning the district’s phone calls and have not responded to letters, she said. Five families owe a total of $1,500. Around 200 students have lunch accounts that are $4,500 in arrears, Kirby said.

“It’s not our job to feed these kids no matter what happens in the house,” trustee Paul Sandry said. “We can’t give out free lunches.” He suggested giving parents a safety net of $10. “We’re dancing around parental responsibility and I’m tired of it. You’ve got to draw a line somewhere.”

The sack lunches for elementary school students will cost the district about $1 each.

Kirby will begin notifying students when their lunch accounts have only three meals remaining. She said letters would be sent out notifying parents of the policy change.

High school and middle school lunches cost $2.75. Elementary lunches cost $2.25. To pay online, parents can go to bigforkschools.org and click on “Mealtime pay online” on the left side of the page.

The school district last week approved the purchase of a 2014 Dodge Caravan for $21,344. The van will be used by the district’s driver education program.  

The board approved the purchase of a new school bus for $106,700. It will be delivered in June. A 2007 model will be traded in for $18,000 at that time. The new bus will be used primarily for field trips, district transportation director Reenie Clock said.

The district approved an increase in substitute teacher pay. Effective Jan. 1, substitutes will be paid $65 a day instead of $62. Substitute aides’ pay will increase from $7.80 to $7.90 per hour due to a cost-of-living increase in the minimum wage required by state law.

District business manager Eda Taylor said the district is behind other area districts in substitute teacher pay. She would like the district to remedy that before the next school year starts. Columbia Falls and Whitefish pay their substitutes $70 a day, while Kalispell, Somers/Lakeside and Cayuse Prairie pay $75 a day. Evergreen pays $85 a day.

Taylor announced that the district can start taking applications for three school board positions. The election will be a mail-in ballot May 6. The seats open are for Swan Lake (1) and Bigfork (2). Current occupants of these seats include: Dave Carlson, Doug Fraley and Paul Sandry.

Superintendent Cynthia Clary said Bigfork received a No. 5 ranking from the NerdWallet.com finance blog on the best towns for young families to live in Montana. It placed behind Columbus, Sidney, Bozeman and Dillon. Kalispell was 10th, Whitefish, 19th, Missoula, 20th, Polson, 25th, Libby, 33rd, Columbia Falls, 35th, Evergreen, 53rd. Only places with a population greater than 2,000 were ranked.

The rankings were based on five factors, including median home value, homeowner costs, median household income and income between 1999 and 2011.