Gunnison Watershed School District

2019-2020 Annual Notice of Local Meal Charge Policy &  Meal Payment Information

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The school meals program makes nutritious and tasty meals available to all students.  Each year, we work to ensure that all eligible children are certified for free and reduced meals.  Sometimes children who are not certified for free or reduced meals wish to purchase breakfast or lunch and do not have the necessary funds with them or on their cafeteria account.  This presents a difficult situation for the child and cafeteria staff.  In order to assure that students have the nutrition they need to learn and thrive, the school district adopted its Local Meal Charge Policy*. 

This policy allows students to charge one complete breakfast and one complete lunch per day, regardless of meal account balance.  Parents are still responsible for payment of these meals. This policy is intended to provide a wholesome complete meal and does not allow for individual items to be charged. The student will be told to select a complete meal if they have no funds and are attempting to buy individual items.  

The complete unpaid meal policy, EF-E-1, is available on the school district website: http://gunnisonschools.net/district/school_board.  

Meal Payment Information:

• Cash and check are always accepted at the point of sale.
• Each student has a school meals account, which is accessed with a 4 digit pin number.
• Students can make purchases with the school meals account if it is pre-funded.
• Students may not “charge” items to their school meals account if it has no funds*. See local meal charge policy.

   

  How to Pre-fund Your Child’s Cafeteria Account:

• You may pay with a check or cash at the school office.

• Set up an account at www.mypaymentsplus.com. Enter in your child’s name and 6 digit student ID number. Set up the autopay option for recurring payments.
• Parents should use mypaymentsplus to make payments their child’s cafeteria account, view purchases, set up autopay and set up payment reminders.
• If you want to put a block on your child’s account so that they cannot charge a meal, please contact your school’s cafeteria manager (see below).

 Notification of Low and Negative Balances:

• Notices of Low Balances (Less than $5.00) and Negative Balances are sent to the guardian every 2 weeks.
• Notices are emailed from the software system Solana. Please look for these in your inbox.
• If there is no email on file, the notice is mailed home.
• Kitchen managers call guardians if a student  account reaches the unpaid balance of -$50.00
• Pre-collections notices are emailed and mailed to the guardian if the account reaches an unpaid balance of -$100.00.  Guardians are given 3 weeks to pay off the balance or set up a payment plan before the account is sent to collections.

The school district does not send home statements of balances or itemized invoices of purchases. Parents need to manage their student’s account on mypaymentsplus. The District cannot carry the financial burden of delinquent lunch accounts or spend the time and energy it takes to collect.  Therefore, as a last resort, any parent who repeatedly refuses to take one of the above actions and continues to have a negative balance on their child’s lunch account will be notified and sent to collections.

Thank you for supporting the school cafeteria and for managing your child’s account.  Please feel free to contact myself or your cafeteria manager for assistance.

Sincerely,

Kristen Osborn, School Nutrition Director

kosborn@gunnisonschools.net; (970) 641-7770

Gunnison Watershed School District Kitchen Managers:

Crested Butte Community School: Kim Kula, kklula@gunnisonschools.net  (970) 641-7720 x6313

Gunnison Community School and Lake School: Laura Henry, lhenry@gunnisonschools.net  (970) 641-7710 x4018     

Gunnison High School: Trina Lull, tlull@gunnisonschools.net  (970) 641-7770 x3638