Dear Editor,

As a community member of the New Glarus School system, we see our school achieve in many ways, academically, grades, sports, etc. It was recently brought to my attention, with having a member of our family with a child in school, that when she was going to sign up for school this year, she was told that she has an outstanding lunch balance of over $511.00, with an “a la cart” program our lunch room offers to the kids.

I looked into this, as the children can purchase “a la cart” items to go along with their lunches by swiping a card and charging to their account (which is supposed to have money in it) for things not offered with the regular lunch program. I contacted the lunch program coordinator and asked for an itemized list of what this child had purchased in the past to bring her balance over $500.00 and why there wasn’t anything said, to allow this to go so high and get out of hand. The program coordinator told me she doesn’t keep track of the items purchased and couldn’t give me an itemized list of what was purchased. However, she did tell me that this past spring they changed the program, so a child cannot go over $50.00 anymore.

What’s wrong with this? They shouldn’t allow a child to purchase anything, I feel, unless they have funds in their account to be able to swipe their card and charge. I don’t think I have ever gone to a store and purchased $100 worth of items and when I went to check out, gave the cashier $50.00. I was also told by the lunch program coordinator that the child’s balance, as well as other children in the school who have large outstanding balances, this could be from 3-4 years ongoing. WHAT?

I truly believe that this “a la cart” program needs to be addressed and looked into, or, if we have 300 students going to charge $50.00 over their account balance, let me see, that would be $15,000.00? Thank God, we don’t have 300 kids with $511.00 over charges, let me see, that would equal $153,300.00?

Thank you.

Steve Hodgson,

New Glarus