Nome Public Schools are out $12,500—that’s in overdue lunch money that’s been accumulating for years. Figuring out how to collect those outstanding debts was the topic of Tuesday night’s school board work session.
District business manager Paula Coffman began by explaining that about 230 students owe some amount of money to the district in past lunch fees—anywhere from 50 cents to upwards of $50. It’s in the latter group that Coffman said the largest amount of debt is accumulating.
“Those who owe $50 or more… That of course is the bulk of the delinquent lunch accounts, $10,504.44,” said Coffman. “There are 50 people who owe more than $50 and that’s the bulk of it.”
Coffman said these numbers are the balances as of last year, before the school district began offering free breakfast and lunch to all students through a partnership with NANA Management Services and federal and state programs. But board members say it’s a situation they’ve been dealing with for a while. Now, they’re trying to anticipate how much money they can actually get back—and if it’s worth tracking down every debtor.
Board member Barb Amarok asked, “How far back in time do these bills go, and how many times were these families notified that they owed?”
“Well, that’s different for different people, but some of these go back years,” said Coffman.
She explained that families receive a letter every month if they owe money to the school, so the amount should not catch anyone off guard. However, she said the district has tried collecting lunch money in the past without much to show for it.
“Our efforts have not been very successful,” said Coffman. “We’ve sent certified letters once, maybe twice, last year and as far as I know that didn’t net a lot of results.”
Sending those more official “certified” letters instead of regular letters is important if the district considers taking the debtors to court. That path might be pursued if the district hires a collection agency to help recuperate the larger funds. Either way, Coffman said in every letter, she hopes to remind families that their debt is part of a larger sum that’s taking money away from other programs in the school district.
Board member Amarok expressed her disappointment that the situation has reached this level.
“I just want to say that we the school shouldn’t have let it go this far to be sitting here and having 50 people owe over $50. I think we should’ve been more diligent about collecting the money and qualifying families because there really are families that are in need and maybe those are some of the ones that owe quite a bit of money. If their children are being allowed to eat, and they are unable to pay but they’re still being allowed to eat, we are responsible,” said Amarok.
On the bright side, school board members said this shouldn’t be an issue in the future, since the district is now providing free lunch and breakfast to all students.
Coffman will be working with Superintendent Steve Gast on a plan of action to recover the debt. They’ll send out letters soon and expect to give families until the end of the October to pay back the money. Meanwhile, Coffman is reaching out to other Alaska school districts to see if they’ve had luck using collection agencies to obtain delinquent lunch fees.
