Parents who fail to pay for school lunches will have their kids eating peanut butter sandwiches

The Decorah School district has a number of families who qualify for free or reduced cost student meals.  Every other family pays into a lunch fund, against which lunch fees are charged.

Last school year there were six families attending Decorah schools who let their school lunch accounts go into the red to the tune of $200 to almost $700.  Because of those debts, the Decorah School Board passed a policy which said when lunch accounts got below $30 in debt, students would be given peanut butter sandwiches instead of the regular lunches.

On Monday night the school board met with food account manager Kristi Roffman, who said the school district last school year eventually had to take several families to court to garnish wages in order to get paid for the school lunches.  "We cannot write off these debts," Roffman told the board.

While the families of six students this year have gone below the $30 in the red figure, Roffman says their accounts were eventually replenished.

School Board president Ron Fadness said he was concerned that kids were "taking the fall" for their parents' lack of action.  But school board member Cindy Schissel said the policy was an effective way "to get the attention of the parents."

Roffman agreed, saying "Unfortunately, there are parents who break the rules, which is why we have this policy." 

The school board agreed, voting unanimously to approve a first reading of a renewal of the school lunch policy.