Cafeteria Confusion

Last week, on Monday, Deacon decided he wanted to buy lunch. Since my kids rarely ever decide to buy lunch I send money with them on the days they want to rather than keep money on an in-school account. It's one less thing to keep track of I guess.  Anyway, back to Monday.

 

Monday, Deacon was late to school because he had a dental appointment that morning.  I should've known better than to let him buy lunch a day he was going in late, but I didn't think much of it before school because there's quite a bit that happens in the mornings here before we get out the door. So I put some money in his backpack and off we went.

 

When I dropped him off at school the woman working at the front desk asked if he needed lunch and I told her that he wanted to buy, she marked down on a slip of paper his lunch choice (chicken patty), and then I asked, "Can he give you his money now?" She replied that no, he could just take it with him and it would be fine.

 

It'll be fine she says.

 

That night, Deacon was telling Josh how he went down for lunch and when he asked for his chicken patty he was told that he didn't have any money on his account and was given a cheese sandwich. I asked, "What happened?" He repeated his story and said that after he was given a cheese sandwich he gave the lunch lady his money, and it was okay because the cheese was really good and he liked it. I asked Josh if he thought I should mention it to the school and he said not to bother since he liked the sandwich.

 

Fast forward now to Wednesday. Wednesday Deacon brought home from a school a note saying his cafeteria account was at negative the price of one school lunch. Confused as to how he could be negative the price of a lunch when he said he gave the money to the cash register lady I asked him again what he did with his lunch money when he got to school on Monday.  This time he told me he had given the money to his teacher. When it was time to go down to lunch he said he asked her for his money back but she said she didn't know where it was.  Soooo, a completely different story than the one told to me on Monday.

 

As this didn't sound like something his teacher would do, I emailed her and asked her what went down. She replied that he had given her his money, and she sent it down to the office like the rest of the lunch monies but after that she had no idea what happened to it because it was out of her realm of control. Looks like it's time to question the office staff.

 

Thursday, when I went in to pick up the boys, I brought the paper with me stating the negative balance,. I explained to them what happened and they assured me they'd look into it. Friday morning, the woman who originally told me that "it would be fine" called to say that Deacon had a negative balance going into lunch on Monday, so when he gave in his money it brought him back up to a $0 balance, but when he went to then buy lunch for that day, it brought him back down to a negative amount, thus the cheese sandwich instead of a chicken patty. I told her that was impossible because he had a $0 balance going into lunch on Monday and he should've been given a chicken patty. This confused the woman who then transferred me to the cafeteria.

 

The woman who answered in the cafeteria was wonderful and friendly. When I asked her what was going on she explained it all. Deacon had a $0 balance on Monday.  He turned in his money to his teacher, who sent it to the office, but because he was late to school that day, the money went back to him rather than into his account for lunch that day. Since he hadn't been given his money yet, he showed up to the cafeteria with a $0 balance and no money - hence the cheese sandwich and the negative balance.  When he was later given his money back, he brought it down to the lady at the register and paid for his lunch. She then said this should have put him back at $0 but for some reason it didn't register in the system, hence the note saying he owed the price of a lunch still.  She promised to have her supervisor look at Deacon's account when he got to work later and wipe the account clean, putting it back at $0 because that's where she knows it's supposed to be. And that's exactly what happened.

 

When Josh got home from work on Friday and I told him what had transpired that morning he said, "So, Deacon was right with both stories he told us?" Yes. Apparently he was.