Luverne School District meal debt climbs to $27,000

Students at Luverne Public Schools have accumulated an unpaid meal debt close to $27,000.
A state procedural plan was recently rolled out, and Luverne is poised to adopt the debt collection process this month.
“We are going to start the process of collecting after we meet to distribute Angel Fund money to needy families,” Superintendent Craig Oftedahl told board members Jan. 26.
The state provided a template for a consistent unpaid meal charge and debt collection process to collect the unpaid meal debt.
As of Monday, the district’s unpaid meal balance was $26,626.
There is $7,036 in the Angel Fund, established in 2017 from private donations for specific needs in the district.
Many district families qualify for the state’s free and reduced meal program based on income. Many, however, do not apply for the program.
Families can apply for free/reduced-price meal benefits any time during the school year, especially if a change has occurred to the household income or family size. Signup is completed in the district office.
The delinquent meal balances are several years of accumulated debt and are not a new problem for school districts.
Account balances fluctuate from year to year as balances are paid, but this year the negative balances are escalating rapidly.
At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, Luverne’s unpaid meal balance was at $3,503.
Within four months of the current school year, the balance grew to $9,608 and two months later the amount is $26,626.
“It is an oddball year due to the fact this is the first time we are charging for lunch for the past two years,” said business manager Tyler Reisch.
“I personally felt it was going to take time for parents to get back into the swing of realizing they have to put money in their child’s account.”
Due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the district participated in the National School Lunch Program to offer free breakfasts and lunches to all students during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.
The free meals for all students ended in September.
Parents can pay in person, by mail or use the district’s online payment system. Students can pay cash at the time of meal purchase.
“We keep trying to work with families to set up a plan for payment and that is we haven’t ‘written off’ the amount (to the district’s general fund),” Oftedahl said. “We try to create a positive balance by asking parents to provide some payment or set up a plan to pay down some of the negative balances.”
The district continues to accept Angel Fund donations.
 
No ‘lunch shaming’ takes place locally
No students at Luverne Public Schools are given alternative lunches or denied meals if they have a negative balance.
The district also no longer gives students stamps or slips of paper indicating they have a negative balance.
“That policy went away three years ago,” Oftedahl said. “We still notify parents when they are approaching a zero balance and when they have a negative. We do not notify the student.”
Luverne and other Minnesota school districts adopted resolutions recently mirroring what the districts were already practicing of providing student meals at school regardless of a negative account balance.
In November state attorney general Keith Ellison said that providing alternative meals violates state law that requires respectful treatment of students regarding school lunch debt and prohibits limiting access to many aspects of student life based on meal debt.
“Minnesota law is clear: students whose families are struggling to afford their lives cannot be denied a regular school lunch or offered a substandard alternative meal in place of a regular lunch,” Ellison said in a press release.
“That practice is another form of ‘lunch shaming’ that is an affront to the dignity of those students and is not allowed under the law.”