No Scrooge in lunchroom
Canon-McMillan School District received buckets of bad publicity last month when Stacy Koltiska, a cafeteria worker at Wylandville Elementary School, quit her job in disgust after she allegedly was not allowed to serve a hot lunch to a first-grader whose lunch account was overdrawn by more than $25.
After she went online with her complaint – Koltiska claimed the student’s hot meal was tossed out and he was served a cheese sandwich instead – news outlets throughout the Pittsburgh region and as far afield as The Washington Post ran with the story, making the district look unduly parsimonious. It was as if Ebenezer Scrooge was in charge of the district’s lunchrooms.
The district disputed Koltiska’s version of events, but last week the Canon-McMillan School Board revised its policies, underlining that no student will be denied a hot meal if they are enrolled in the free- or reduced-cost lunch program. Moreover, the school board approved a clarification of the school lunch policy, emphasizing that if the families of students come up with a repayment plan for overdrawn accounts, and keep up with their obligations, the student will continue to receive a hot lunch.
The school board deserves credit for making these clarifications. This should keep visions of Scrooge confined to storytelling in classrooms at Christmastime.