The Culver School Board finalized an update to the corporation’s debt collection policy Monday. Superintendent Karen Shuman said school officials have been reevaluating the way they go about making sure people resolve their negative account balances.
One specific area that’s been discussed recently is students’ lunch accounts. School officials have decided to do away with alternative box lunches, and continue giving students hot lunches, even if they’ve accumulated a negative account balance. At the same time, they plan to more aggressively inform parents of any negative account balances.
Also during Monday’s meeting, the Culver School Board voted to raise the price of adult lunches by five cents. Shuman said the change brings the cost in line with government standards. “They are making us increase our adult lunch price because of the funding that is necessary to cover the cost,” she explained. “It has to be a certain percentage of difference between the student lunch price and the adult lunch price, so in order to do that, we had to raise.”
While it may be a relatively minor increase, if it didn’t take place, the school corporation could lose $15,000 to $30,000 in monthly funding, according to Treasurer Casey Howard. Student lunch prices will remain the same.
