ROGERS — Parents in the Rogers School District can now keep track of their children’s cafeteria accounts, put money in those accounts and even keep track of what their children are ordering for lunch, all online.
The district has a new program called Meal Pay Plus.
It’s free for the district, and all functions, except making payments, are free for parents, said Ashley Siwiec, a spokeswoman for the district. The service charges a 4.3 percent fee for online payments.
Parents said they thought the new system was a big improvement over sending checks to school.
“With a second-grader and a kindergartner, you’re never really sure it’s going to make it there,” said Lisa McCentire, the mother of two students at Elza R. Tucker Elementary School. “I pay all my bills electronically already, and this is just one more thing where I can do that.”
Siwiec said district officials also hope the system will help parents keep better track of the balances on their children’s cafeteria accounts.
“We do hope this will help keep parents updated about low balances so they have the opportunity to either make an online payment or send money to school before they run out of funds,” Siwiec said.
Karen Holcomb is the mother of five children in the district — two sixth-graders, a third-grader, a second-grader and a kindergartner.
She said keeping track of all those accounts was a chore.
“I’d just wait until they sent a note that I owed money, and I would write a check and let them divide it up however the cafeteria needed,” she said.
Holcomb said she also liked that the system allowed her to see what her middle-schoolers bought at the cafeteria.
“I can go into purchase histories and see my kid bought three cookies for lunch, and that’s not acceptable,” she said. “I can watch what they’re eating and have a conversation.”
Siwiec said almost 1,000 families have signed up for the system.