School Board discusses EZ SchoolPay for student lunches

Parents may soon have the option to pay for their children’s meals at school online.

At their meeting on Tuesday, school board members approved launching a pilot online payment program through EZ SchoolPay at the intermediate school starting in February. If it is a success, it could be expanded to all the schools in the district.

EZ SchoolPay would allow parents to set up an online account where they can check their child’s meal account balance, receive text alerts when the balance gets low and add money to the account online, according to Jason Carter, food services director. The program even gives parents the option to set up an auto draft, either on a schedule or when the account balance reaches a certain level, he said.

Parents can check the meal account balances and receive text alerts for free, but they will be charged a $2.50 transaction fee, regardless of the size of the transaction, Carter said. Parents will still have the option to pay

in the traditional way with check or cash at their child’s school, he said.

Carter said that EZ SchoolPay is pretty standard among Northwest Arkansas schools. Carter said he became familiar with the program while working at the Gravette and Rogers School Districts. There were not a “huge amount” of parents who used the program to pay for their student’s meal fees, but many parents took advantage of the ability to set up an online account and check their children’s meal account balance, he said.

School board member Roger Holroyd raised concerns about the transaction fee. He said that transaction fees are usually a minimal charge, and pointed out that parents who are struggling may use their credit cards to add $10 to their children’s accounts just so they can eat. As a percentage of the average transaction, $2.50 is too high, he said.

“I love everything about it except the potential cost to families struggling to pay their lunch bill,” he said.

District treasurer Terry Raskiewicz explained that because the school is a nonprofit government organization it is not allowed to cover the cost of transaction. The transaction fee is collected and paid to a third party vendor, she said. It is possible that the fee could be adjusted down over time if the average fee proves to be less than $2.50.

In the future, the district could use EZ SchoolPay to set up an online store where parents could also purchase yearbooks or buy school T-shirts.

On Wednesday, superintendent Ken Ramey said that Carter had been researching the transaction fee. Fees at area districts range from $2 to $3, he said. Because the service is provided by a third party vendor, the fee is not really negotiable, he said. Ramey emphasized that parents will still have the option to pay with a check or cash as they have done in the past.

In other business, the school board took the following actions: Accepted the resignation of Annette Rowe, high school speech-language pathologist; and David O’Brien, middle school language arts teacher.

Approved emergency sick leave for one teacher.

Approved the transfer of one student from the Siloam Springs School District to the Fayetteville School District.