Austin School Board members were assured Monday that students with unpaid lunch accounts were not subjected to the humiliation cited in a recent Star Tribune editorial.

Board member Don Leathers said he had read that in some out-of-state districts, some students’ hands were stamped with the phrase, “I need lunch money,” while others had a tray of hot lunch taken from them and then dumped into a trash can in view of fellow students.

“We don’t stamp,” said Mary Weikum, director of food and nutrition services. And while a hot tray lunch has, in the past, had to be traded for a cold lunch, it is done out of sight of other students.

Weikum was on hand to speak with the board as it took a first look at a new policy on unpaid meal charges. New federal guidelines require schools to adopt meal-debt policies and to inform parents about problems at the beginning of the school year.

The policy now being considered is what has been practiced in the district.

Students in kindergarten to fourth grade are given three written notices — teachers are given the notices and they are inserted in the students’ back packs — with the first given when children have $8 remaining in their account, then $2, then 0. Students in fifth to 12th grades receive daily verbal reminders of the debt.

If the account reaches zero, a student may not charge more than three meals on the account.

No other meals may be charged after that point, but the student is allowed to receive a sandwich and fruit to eat.

“My staff will tell you that that is the worst part of that job,” Weikum said, referring to having to refuse a hot meal to the student.

Weikum said, however, “We try very hard to reach family before it reaches that point,” and set up some type of payment plan.

Weikum said the staff tries to make it as easy as possible to keep money in the account. It can be done by sending the funds with the student, paying it by mail, or paying online through a checking account, credit or debit card.

Even then, she said, “with 3,000 students eating lunch each day, there are times when not everything goes the way we want.”

She said in a recent survey of lunch debt, 60 percent of the students with some lunch debt also qualified to eat free and reduced meals, but parents had not made application or were unaware of it. Only a small portion of students were full-pay students, she added.

Superintendent of Schools Dave Krenz said the intent of the programs was to make sure students had good, nutritious meals; even a cold meal can be nutritious, he added. He also noted that students are also offered a free breakfast each day.

Board member Richard Lees said he had witnessed the food program “many, many times over the years,” and said he could not believe “how smooth that operation goes; they do an amazing job.”

“And that’s due to you,” Leathers said, nodding at Weikum.

In other news:

— The board approved a 10-year facilities plan for the district, as required by state law if the district is to receive long-term facilities maintenance revenue. The district will receive $1.5 million in fiscal year 2018,