Anyone with kids at Unitah Elementary?

[One Brow]

https://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57468293-78/lunches-olsen-students-district.html.csp

They are giving the kids lunches, than taking them away and putting them in the trash. At least the kids can have milk and fruit.

 

[Dr. Jones]

I won't point out the misspelling.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district’s child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches.

As a result, the child-nutrition manager visited the school and decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue, he said.

Child-nutrition department? Sounds a little too statist to me. Surly that wasn't around when they were loading me up with corn dogs and cookies in elementary growing up. Get rid of it.

 

[dodo]

The story has all the traits to go national so chances are people will lose their jobs over the outcry...

 

[Harambe]

The story has all the traits to go national so chances are people will lose their jobs over the outcry...

Radio this morning says one of the lunch ladies in the cafeteria is on paid leave. But the reports are saying that direction on doing this came down from the top. If that's the case, and we can prove it, I really, REALLY hope a county/state official gets their head on the chopping block.

 

[UGLI baby]

Ha, this happened to me a brunch of times in elementary school.

Wasnt allowed to get food cuz the balance wasnt paid or whatever and had to sit at a spécial table and was given à roll and milk. Then, instead of recess i had to stay in the cafétéria and wash tables.



on the app. square bizness.

 

[Harambe]

Ha, this happened to me a brunch of times in elementary school.

Wasnt allowed to get food cuz the balance wasnt paid or whatever and had to sit at a spécial table and was given à roll and milk. Then, instead of recess i had to stay in the cafétéria and wash tables.



on the app. square bizness.

That... that explains a lot.

 

[candrew]

This is nothing new. My sister-in-law lives in Texas and it's well established with the parents that if you don't pay for your kids lunches, your kid doesn't eat - but then again that's Texas.

My wife usually takes care of this stuff with my kid, a couple of years back my wife was sick and I had to write the check for my son's lunches - he was in 1st grade or 2nd grade at the time.. I put the check in his notebook for the teacher. Apparently, I put it in the wrong notebook and she couldn't find - my kid still got lunch. If he didn't I think I'd still be on a rampage.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

Ha, this happened to me a brunch of times in elementary school.

Wasnt allowed to get food cuz the balance wasnt paid or whatever and had to sit at a spécial table and was given à roll and milk. Then, instead of recess i had to stay in the cafétéria and wash tables.



on the app. square bizness.

Did they throw it away in front way in front of your face? That was the only notable thing to me. At our school, they would just hand your tray to somebody else and then tell you to get lost basically if your negative balance was too high or you didn't have money that day. And then we would get mad and go steal 3 or 4 milks since it was away from the main line.

 

[colton]

The story has all the traits to go national so chances are people will lose their jobs over the outcry...

It's gone national already. It's the top story on Yahoo News right now.
https://news.yahoo.com/

Lunch Lady Revolt: No Money, No Food For You

Chaney Zinn knew something was amiss when her first-grader came home sobbing over what happened during school lunch. On Tuesday, just as her son and his class were sitting down to eat at Uintah Elementary School in Salt Lake City, staff started confiscating trays of warm food from students…
Takepart.com

And I hope someone DOES lose his/her job over this. It was a moronic decision, showing absolutely no iota of common sense.

 

[colton]

This is nothing new. My sister-in-law lives in Texas and it's well established with the parents that if you don't pay for your kids lunches, your kid doesn't eat - but then again that's Texas.

It's quite a bit different. In this case, they actually gave the kids the food. And then took it back and threw it away. Morons.

 

[Stifle Tower]

It's gone national already. It's the top story on Yahoo News right now.
https://news.yahoo.com/




And I hope someone DOES lose his/her job over this. It was a moronic decision, showing absolutely no iota of common sense.

Yes, it is a bit draconian to give out the food and then snatch the trays away. I have a feeling the report might be a bit dramatized to get the appropriate "outrage" from the readers.

From what I read, the school apparently did not inform parents well in advance of the negative balances. Also wonder what the limit is. Our school district in CA does the same thing in terms of not giving out a regular lunch, except I believe the balances are looked at BEFORE food is dished out. If a child's account has too high of a negative balance, that child is given milk and fruit.

Yes, it sounds harsh, but schools are operating on shoe-string budgets. Some parents would run their negative balances into hundreds of dollars if allowed. In fact, thisd isn't the first time this type of report has surfaced. Several months ago I read a report of a school being out $60K the previous year due to unpaid lunch accounts.

The only adjustment the school needs to make is to set a limit on the negative account balances. For example, -$5 means the child has been given a couple of free meals. At that point the parent has likely been notified 2x and had a chance to replenish the account. Although my child rarely purchases school lunches nowadays, we were notified EVERY time we had a negative balance (happens to even the best of us when we forget or a child purchases a lunch without our knowledge). Then it's a simple matter of going on-line and putting more $ in the account. But the school certainly shouldn't throw away a meal if the child's account is under by less than a dollar.

Seriously, though, when I went to school I either took a lunch or carried lunch $. If I forgot, or my parents forgot, I went hungry or borrowed from friends. What happened to parents/children taking responsibility?

 

[Harambe]

The only thing the school did wrong was not informing parents well in advance (apparently) and setting such a low limit. Our school district in CA does the same thing, except I believe the balances are looked at BEFORE food is dished out. If a child's account has too high of a negative balance, that child is given milk and fruit.

Yes, it sounds harsh, but schools are operating on shoe-string budgets. Some parents would run their negative balances into hundreds of dollars if allowed. In fact, thisd isn't the first time this type of report has surfaced. Several months ago I read a report of a school being out $60K the previous year due to unpaid lunch accounts.

The only adjustment the school needs to make is to set a limit on the negative account balances. For example, -$5 means the child has been given a couple of free meals. At that point the parent has likely been notified 2x and had a chance to replenish the account. Although my child rarely purchases school lunches nowadays, we were notified EVERY time we had a negative balance (happens to even the best of us when we forget or a child purchases a lunch without our knowledge). Then it's a simple matter of going on-line and putting more $ in the account. But the school certainly shouldn't throw away a meal if the child's account is under by less than a dollar.

Seriously, though, when I went to school I either took a lunch or carried lunch $. If I forgot, or my parents forgot, I went hungry or borrowed from friends. What happened to parents/children taking responsibility?

The parents are responsible for the Child. Demeaning the child for something they can't do anything about is damaging them

 

[Maktub]

Yeah it sucks that the kids had their food taken away and the school should have handled it differently, but this is far from an emotionally damaging situation. Geez, the hyperbole over this is amazing. If it was my kid, I'd apologize and make sure he has money in his account going forward.

Parents, pay your bills. Stop blaming others for your lack of responsibility.

 

[Stifle Tower]

The parents are responsible for the Child. Demeaning the child for something they can't do anything about is damaging them

Children are also responsible for themselves. Does the parent go to school and hand in homework to the teacher? If a child comes without it, can she say, "oh, my parent forgot to put it in my bag?" I'm very happy my daughter's teacher didn't let her get away with that one. She tried it once...the teacher said, "YOUR homework is YOUR responsibility." My daughter now makes sure she either packs her own backpack or the homework isn't sitting on the table. Otherwise she knows she'll be inside for recess as a consequence. This happened in the 2nd grade, BTW, when my daugther was 7: plenty old enough to take responsibility.

Miss a lunch or two and I'll bet children would start asking their parents for cash (school lunches are <$3) or remind them to put money on their accounts. Point is, I seriously doubt this was the first time these children had negative balances. We only heard one side of the story. I'd frankly be surprised if the school didn't have an auto-reminder set up re: lunch balances. Our school does. Note to parents: have your child carry around an extra $3 in a pocket of their backpack if you're the type that forgets to check balances or only puts a few dollars on at a time.

 

[Archie Moses]

children are also responsible for themselves. Does the parent go to school and hand in homework to the teacher? If a child comes without it, can she say, "oh, my parent forgot to put it in my bag?" i'm very happy my daughter's teacher didn't let her get away with that one. She tried it once...the teacher said, "your homework is your responsibility." my daughter now makes sure she either packs her own backpack or the homework isn't sitting on the table. Otherwise she knows she'll be inside for recess as a consequence. This happened in the 2nd grade, btw, when my daugther was 7: Plenty old enough to take responsibility.

Miss a lunch or two and i'll bet children would start asking their parents for cash (school lunches are <$3) or remind them to put money on their accounts. Point is, i seriously doubt this was the first time these children had negative balances. We only heard one side of the story. I'd frankly be surprised if the school didn't have an auto-reminder set up re: Lunch balances. Our school does. Note to parents: Have your child carry around an extra $3 in a pocket of their backpack if you're the type that forgets to check balances or only puts a few dollars on at a time.

smh...

 

[Stifle Tower]

smh...

Why? You agree children should be coddled and not taught responsibility? The school still gives them milk and fruit. It's not going to harm a child if this happens; they won't die of malnutrition. And if it becomes a habit with a particular child, then it's a completely different issue. Monetary issues with parents can be addressed by providing lunches at no charge. Every district has a federally funded program for low income families. What the issue is here is parents who have "forgotten" to pay their balances. Some of it is innocent (forgetfulness), but some of it is very calculated. The innocents you weed out by allowing a small negative balance. The ones who are trying to get the district to truly provide "free lunches" are deadbeats who can be dealt with legally if they continue to abuse the system.

 

[Stifle Tower]

When schools run large negative balances due to unpaid accounts, who ends up paying for that? Answer: we do. It comes out of the school's budget. Other things are cut to make up the difference. And suddenly, your child has to provide more supplies out of pocket, or fees go up for certain items, or one more fund raiser is added to go along with the popcorn sales, raffle tickets, boxtop collections, etc. Maybe the school should just have a policy up front: we'll not deny anyone lunch. But the cost for doing so is everyone has to contribute $50 to pay for those who we know will abuse the system. Money is due the 1st day of school.

I do disagree with the way this was handled. The lunches should have never been given out and THEN snatched and thrown away. But we only got one side of the story. Do we know for sure this was the first time the parents had been notified of negative balances? Had the school sent out other notices?

 

[candrew]

It's quite a bit different. In this case, they actually gave the kids the food. And then took it back and threw it away. Morons.

Agreed, the fact that they gave them lunches and threw it away created the hook which made this a national story. But withholding lunch from children if their parents haven't paid dues is not an unheard of event.

 

[dodo]

When schools run large negative balances due to unpaid accounts, who ends up paying for that? Answer: we do. It comes out of the school's budget. Other things are cut to make up the difference. And suddenly, your child has to provide more supplies out of pocket, or fees go up for certain items, or one more fund raiser is added to go along with the popcorn sales, raffle tickets, boxtop collections, etc. Maybe the school should just have a policy up front: we'll not deny anyone lunch. But the cost for doing so is everyone has to contribute $50 to pay for those who we know will abuse the system. Money is due the 1st day of school.

I do disagree with the way this was handled. The lunches should have never been given out and THEN snatched and thrown away. But we only got one side of the story. Do we know for sure this was the first time the parents had been notified of negative balances? Had the school sent out other notices?

That's part of the issue - parents claim the never got notices for their balances being low. This in conjunction with the statements from the school officials that "we just rolled out a new (software) system but it just like the old one" (paraphrasing here) makes it unacceptable. This is equivalent of your electrical company to not send you a bill and then to pull the plug on your house on the due date. Yes, it is your responsibility to pay the bill on time, but you'd be pissed as hell if that happened to you.