Homecoming is here. Where does Smyrna schools stand on lunch debt blocking kids from dance?

It used to be just a long list.

JoVonna Dodge and other classroom advisers would print a list of all Smyrna High School students, placing it in binders as they set up to sell tickets in the cafeteria. Students could have been denied if they tried to buy tickets for non-students without guest forms, she said, or if they had significant disciplinary issues at the time.

Otherwise, Dodge and others would simply etch ticket numbers next to names as they sold.

It was rare that students couldn’t go to a dance, as she recalled it in the early 2000s. Back then, she said educators didn’t even have to limit attendance to homecoming.

“It was just a comprehensive list of anyone who was a student, and you know, I learned this from the class adviser from the year before,” said the former teacher in Smyrna from 1996 to 2012. “Nobody ever said anything to us about outstanding obligations.”

Today, there’s a different story in Smyrna. And it concerns debt.

At or above $20, a student's lunch debt will block their inclusion in certain school-sanctioned social events in the Smyrna School District. Any such "obligation," according to the Kent County system, recently denied students at Smyrna High School the chance to buy homecoming tickets.

One parent started a fundraiser in early October. With the dance this weekend, funds now ebb just above $4,200. Social posts, news stories and other concerned parents brought the issue to a higher pitch, even seeing Superintendent Susan Brown meeting with school leadership, the Smyrna school board and Delaware Department of Education last week.

District leaders said it remains in review, as of late Thursday.

Meal debt at the high school tends to hover around $16,000, according to the district, while districtwide books show some $32,000 in the red, built over years. School leaders say this practice has been largely followed for nearly two decades — considered an extension of policy concerning lost or damaged school property, approved in '96, though not mentioned explicitly there or in school board meal policy.

This school property rules state: "All obligations must be met before students may be eligible to participate in school-sanctioned, extracurricular events and activities. High school seniors must clear all obligations in order to receive a diploma."

At mealtime, the district says no children are denied food — allowed to select a meal of their choosing, without restriction, per board policy. But similar to how academic performance plays a role in participating in extracurricular activities, it says, maintaining "debt-free" meal accounts is required.

Not everyone supports that thinking.

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'Quid pro quo on that is disgusting to me'

Parents have seen this, too.

Mom Melissa Scott said she’s seen approaches like this since her boys were in school, some seven years ago. Another father, Kevin Christensen, has been concerned about student lunch debt's potential to block graduates from walking for the past four years. The Smyrna resident has started similar GoFundMes since 2019, after hearing that seniors could be denied the chance to attend their graduation ceremony.

Homecoming, prom, other dances are just more milestones.

“Putting some type of quid pro quo on that is disgusting to me,” said the father of three, his oldest a senior. “I understand why they're doing it. I'm a businessman; I collect money from customers; I get it. That doesn't make it right. And it's the child being punished for the parent.”

Reactions have been mixed.

Where one comment in a sea of social reactions begged for the fundraiser link, another would decry the assumption of handouts. Some taxpayers couldn't believe so much meal debt had built up, others called for a bigger venue so no students could be denied dance night.

Christensen isn’t sure where he falls on the practice with dances, but he plans to keep raising money for graduates to walk each spring. He wonders if better communication with outstanding lunch debt, from calls or letters sent home, to earlier notification ahead of dances, would help. Embarrassing high school students, he said, should always be avoided.

Students with unpaid debts are allowed to graduate, a district spokesperson said. However, that outstanding debt may impact a student's participation in the graduation ceremony. School leaders have "worked closely with students and their families to collect cafeteria debt," he said, in aims to see each senior walk.

Emails are sent to parents every Monday morning concerning any overdue balances, the district said, and school meal prices have not increased. Smyrna does not meet criteria for a systemwide free or reduced lunch program, so local families have to apply on their own.

Forms should have been sent out as the school year began, but this and details on other resources are available online.

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Going forward in Smyrna

Homecoming tickets are sold out.

Whatever money raised by this month’s GoFundMe, according to parent organizer Roo Parag, will head to the Child Nutrition Program for Smyrna High. Students’ specific account information cannot be released, however, so the donation would likely be blanket. A district spokesperson said any donor funds received by the program "are distributed per the donor's instructions."

"Those kids may have missed out on the opportunity altogether," Parag said. "But even if they have, even if we don't come up with the money, they will not be able to attend the next social event either."

The district has made no indication of losing the practice as it relates to these school events. In a statement, leaders were "sincerely grateful for the support of our community members who have contributed funds to alleviate meal debt, either presently or in the past."

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Smyrna School District is planning a new school and additions to two others as the community continues to grow — expecting two housing developments with a combined 1,135 lots — as previously reported by Delaware Online/The News Journal. The new fourth- and fifth-grade school will hold 600 students, planted across from Sunnyside Elementary.

JoVonna Dodge doesn’t really have a horse in this race anymore. Maybe there was an expected practice years back that she and other advisers she worked with had never heard about. The former educator taught in private school for eight years after leaving Smyrna, now still living in the area.

She's confident this hasn’t been the only way.

“The failsafe: ‘That's how we've always done it,’ doesn't truly apply in this situation.”

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Got a story? Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Smyrna district reviews rule barring students with lunch debt from dance