Canon-McMillan lunch policy criticized in viral post
Stacy Yannazzo Koltiska holds her resignation letter inside her home in Canonsburg.
A former cafeteria worker is criticizing Canon-McMillan School District’s lunch debt policy as punishing and embarrassing for students.
District officials responded to Stacy Yannazzo Koltiska’s Facebook post lambasting the district for its policy to give students in kindergarten through sixth grade sandwich lunches instead of a hot lunch if their food accounts are overcharged by more than $25.
The viral post shared at least 1,700 times Friday also explained Koltiska quit her job Thursday as a food worker at Wylandville Elementary School because she had to “take a first grade boy’s chicken and give him a cheese sandwich.”
“I will never forget the look on his face and then his eyes welled up with tears,” Koltiska wrote. “I was going to resign on Monday but my mother passed away on Sunday, so I forgot about it until (Wednesday) when it happened again. I had the same sick feeling so I resigned.”
In an interview Friday at her Canonsburg home, Koltiska, who has three children in the district, said she “just couldn’t do it anymore.”
“He comes up in the line, this boy with his chicken nuggets, and my supervisor’s eyes get wide, and she shakes her head and mouths ‘sandwich.’ I had to take away his hot meal and give him a cheese sandwich and throw the other food away because he either didn’t have money in his account or forgot money. He’s being charged the same for the sandwich and I’m throwing it away anyway. My supervisor said, ‘Well don’t let the child see you throw it away.’ That isn’t the point,” she said.
District business manager Jodi Mansmann said the post was missing facts and context.
“There is a policy in place for paid-lunch students. Free or reduced-lunch students will always get one free or reduced (price) breakfast and one lunch. The policy says that if a paid lunch student has more than $25 in unpaid debts, then they get a sandwich lunch with fruit or side and a milk or beverage. It still meets the daily dietary needs requirements for a student,” Mansmann said.
The policy on file with the district states that “after overdrawing the cafeteria account by $25, students in grade K-6 will be able to charge an alternate lunch which will consist of a sandwich, a fruit/vegetable serving and milk. Students in grades 7-12 will not be allowed to charge any additional lunches.”
But Koltiska said the policy is not practical, and that it embarrasses a student instead of holding parents accountable.
“I grew up poor and that shame and humiliation of growing up like that, I know what it’s like. The other students are going to think, ‘Well what’s he doing with bread instead of what I have?’ It’s a shame because they’re still charging the same price but denying them the choice of a regular meal,” Koltiska said.
Superintendent Michael Daniels said the policy is one that was suggested by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and is in place in multiple districts.
“We had a May 26 meeting, a June 16 meeting and a June 23 meeting where this policy was discussed. There was no public comment about it,” Daniels said, “and it passed on Aug. 12.”
The policy, Mansmann said, is a mechanism to enforce payment of outstanding debts to the school.
“We’ve seen a reduction in half of families who owed over the past three weeks since the policy was enacted,” Mansmann said.
The school board voted unanimously Thursday to write-off $20,700 in past cafeteria balances owed by free and reduced-price students’ lunch accounts to be paid from budgetary reserves.