Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Meal Debt And Charge Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Madison County Board schedules review after $43,000 student-account shortfall tied to charge policy
Summary
Board members heard from district staff that student accounts ended the 2024–25 school year with a $43,000 negative balance for charged items; staff said federal funds cannot cover those balances and the board put the item on the Aug. 8 work session for follow-up.
Miss Mitchell, a district presenter, told the Madison County Board of Education on July 29 that student accounts closed the 2024–25 school year with a negative balance of $43,000 and that the district must resolve that shortfall before the next school year. "We were looking at we're at a negative balance of $43,000 that had risen considerably from the previous year," she said. She added that the state requires accounts to be at zero at the end of the school year in May.
Miss Mitchell said federal funds cannot be used to repay those charged balances. "It cannot be paid with federal funds, so that is always where the problem is," she said, explaining that certain C&P items had been purchased with federal dollars and therefore could not be reimbursed with federal money. She told the board that community partners had covered some school-level shortfalls in a prior year but that the district saw a higher balance this year.
Superintendent (unnamed) and board members discussed whether the district's rules about charging should be located in a finance manual, in board policy, or both. Miss Mitchell said the state department "does consider it our charge policy" and that the district may place the rule where it chooses and then uphold it. The board directed staff to return with more detail and placed the item on an Aug. 8 work session for a fuller review.
Board members pressed staff for clarity on where a charging rule should be published and how schools would be informed so families are not surprised by account restrictions. The discussion also noted an obscure food-surplus item in the manual that carried a policy title but was not a board-adopted policy; board members said they want to sort which items are formal board policy and which are procedures in the district manual.
No formal motion or vote on policy changes occurred on July 29; the board’s action was to add the charge-policy review to the Aug. 8 work session for additional staff presentation and possible policy drafting.
