'Every child will be fed': Cuyahoga Falls school board rescinds food debt policy

"Every child will be fed."

That was the basic message from Superintendent Andrea Celico and the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education. The school board this week rescinded the measure it passed about a month ago regarding its school lunch policy.

Under that policy, if a student's lunch account hit a zero or negative balance, efforts would be made to contact the student's family about the school meal debt. The student would be provided up to six more meals before not being served.

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Unfortunately, Celico said, the messaging from the school district was ineffective and led people to believe that the district was going to start denying students meals. That was never the intent, she said, apologizing for the miscommunication.

"This board is nothing but well-intended," she said. "We never intended to deprive a child of a meal, but the messaging fell short of the intent."

Board President Anthony Gomez agreed, saying the intent was not just to try to collect on school meal debts but to reach out to families who might be struggling.

"There are two categories of people we are dealing with," he said. "One are people who needed help but were not reaching out."

The purpose of the now-rescinded regulation was to give the district avenues to reach out to those families and offer help finding resources, he said.

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Holly Merkle, the district's coordinator of student wellness and success, said one advantage with reaching out to families on a personal level was that any misunderstandings could be cleared up. For example, in families where English is a second language, they might have difficulty understanding a letter or an automated call.

"I know some families who get the letter, and they think it's just an invoice," Merkle said.

Another, smaller group of people involves those who can afford to pay but refuse to do so, Gomez said. The district was attempting to crack down on this, but the overall effort led to strife in the community.

Celico said she also received numerous calls, messages and even visits from people interested in helping eliminate the meal debts.

The district is setting up a system that will allow people to help with school meal debt and creating a referral program for families who are struggling.

"I've been overwhelmed by the support shown in the community," she said. However, she added, there were a lot of legal issues about handling school meal funding and donations.

School Treasurer Kristy Stoicoiu said one complication of just accepting donations to cover students' meal debts is that the money set aside for food services is separate from other money from the general fund. Most of the funding for food services comes from federal dollars.

"There's a lot of red tape involved," Stoicoiu said.

The district must use non-federal funding to cover "bad debt" from unpaid meals, or debt that can't be collected, Stoicoiu said. Local donations can be used for this type of debt, but schools need to set up a standard practice so all schools and children benefit equally.

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The return of free school meals for all?

However, many of these points may be moot by the next school year, Stoicoiu said.

"There's a lot of talk about universal free lunch at the state level," she said.

Beginning next school year, families who are on Medicaid will automatically qualify for the free and reduced lunch program, Stoicoiu said.

A possible change is the United States Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service may change the Community Eligibility Provision. The proposal would lower the minimum identified student percentage participation threshold from 40% to 25%. "Identified students” are students who are certified for free meals without a household application. Currently, if a district has 40% or more students in their district who are qualify for a free school meal, all students in the district will receive school meals for free. If the threshold is lowered to 25%, the Cuyahoga Falls City Schools would be able to provide free school meals to all its students.

The Ohio State Board of Education also has introduced a resolution recommending that the state legislature use the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide free breakfast and lunch to Ohio's students, Stoicoiu said.

"So hopefully this won't be an issue at all," Stoicoiu said of school meal debts.

Stoicoiu said that district families, at least through the end of the school year, will still be contacted if the funds in a student's account goes into the negative.

Regardless of what the state does for next year, Gomez said, the district's families will not have to worry about their child's meals while they are in schools.

"We will feed every child through the end of the school year," Gomez said.

Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cuyahoga Falls school board rescinds meal debt policy after backlash