$2 lunch payment fees an alternative to pricier meals

Parents now have to pay for the convenience of giving their kids lunch money online.

The Sioux Falls School District began collecting a $2 convenience fee for lunches paid online this year, after widespread use of online payments put too much strain on the district's food services budget.

Parent Joe Pascoe worries about how the new fee might impact low-income families.

"I think it really hurts the people who can afford it the least," Pascoe said. "It hits them the hardest."

Business Manager Todd Vik said the new fee was actually intended to have the least impact on the district's low-income families. The district could have kept absorbing the credit card processing fees, Vik said, but only if the price of lunch increased by 10 cents.

"Do you want to charge everyone?" Vik said. "Or do you want to charge the individuals using the convenience?"

The district began contracting with a New Jersey credit card processing company three years ago, said Business Manager Todd Vik, and at the time, it planned to absorb the credit card processing costs to address concerns like Pascoe's.

That way, a family who couldn't afford to pay for several weeks or months worth of school lunches at one time could make smaller transactions online without a fee.

Those fees quickly became too expensive for the school district to afford, increasing by about $20,000 each year. In the three years the district's been using My School Bucks, it has spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on credit card processing fees.

"We held off as long as we could," Vik said about the district's decision to pass along credit card fees to parents.

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The fees also shouldn't come as a surprise to parents, Vik said. Letters explaining the change should have been available at school orientation or gone home with students, and the My School Bucks website also has red letters at the top explaining the change.

Convenience charges are not uncommon in area schools, and a number of districts around Sioux Falls also use My School Bucks.

Tea Superintendent Jennifer Lowery said she chooses to pay a few extra bucks for the convenience of online payments, but parents in Tea can also send a check or pay for lunches in cash.

Fees are also "100 percent avoidable" in Sioux Falls, Vik said. Parents who don't want to pay the $2 convenience charge can send lunch money via check or cash to the school office.

Follow education watchdog reporter Megan Raposa on Twitter @mlraposa and subscribe to The Highlighter, an education newsletter for parents.