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Burrillville School Committee approves revised student meal-account policy after debate on debt collection timelines
Summary
The board approved Policy 7311 in a second reading after members debated deadlines for overdue meal accounts and whether to allow administrative discretion versus mandatory collection. The superintendent said the rules aim to prevent students from being denied meals.
The Burrillville School Committee voted March 11 to adopt a revised student meal-account policy (Policy 7311) after members debated how strictly to handle overdue cafeteria balances.
During the second reading, Committee member Sylvia questioned provisions that give families 10 to 30 days to clear small balances and leaves the decision to place accounts in collections as discretionary rather than mandatory. "I think it is giving them a lot of leeway," Sylvia said, arguing the time frames were long for relatively small amounts. She suggested stronger language might signal the district's commitment to collection.
Superintendent Dr. Salito defended the deadlines as intended to avoid embarrassing students and to allow administrators to work with families facing hardship. "What we really want to ensure with this policy is that kids [are] not being penalized when they go to lunch," Dr. Salito said, adding that the district uses MySchoolBucks and typically resolves most cases through direct contact with parents.
The policy keeps a degree of administrative discretion on whether an account "may" be placed in collections when extenuating circumstances exist, a choice Dr. Salito said allows the district to respond to genuine financial hardship.
After discussion, the committee approved the policy by voice vote. The policy will be the district's framework for handling negative meal accounts going forward and specifies the timelines and administrative steps the district will follow.
Committee members said they expect staff to continue using individual outreach and free-and-reduced-lunch screening to resolve most delinquencies before punitive steps are considered.
